Low-Cost Route to Single Crystal CVD Diamond Detectors

Future progress in experimental particle physics will be centered on research at high luminosity colliders. In order to fully realize the potential of these systems, high energy particle detectors must be able to withstand the intense radiation environment. High energy particle detectors based on diamond are well known to have excellent response time, detection range, and radiation resistance. However, detectors fabricated from presently available diamond materials are limited by the high cost, limited availability, and limited size of the "electronic grade" diamond produced by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). As an alternative, a lower quality synthetic diamond, which is produced by high-pressure/high-temperature (HPHT) processes, is both cheaper and more readily available than CVD diamond. However, HPHT diamond is characterized by defects and contaminates that make it unsuitable for electronic applications. This project will develop CVD processes to grow high quality, electronic grade diamond films on low quality HPHT diamond substrates. The resulting diamond materials will have all of the property benefits of electronic grade CVD diamond at a fraction of the cost. Commercial Applications and other Benefits as described by the awardee: In addition to high energy physics applications, affordable, radiation-hard, and high-speed diamond-based radiation detectors will be extremely beneficial in markets such as medical diagnostics and imaging, medical radiotherapy, nuclear power generation, space exploration, and homeland security.