Extreme ultraviolet single-crystal diamond detectors by chemical vapor deposition

High-quality single-crystal diamond films, homoepitaxially grown by microwave chemical vapor deposition, have been used to produce diamond-based photodetectors. Such devices were tested over a very wide spectral range, from the extreme ultraviolet (UV) (20 nm) up to the near IR region (2400 nm). An optical parametric oscillator tunable laser was used to investigate the 210-2400 nm spectral range in pulse mode. In this region, the spectral response shows a UV to visible contrast of about 6 orders of magnitude. A time response shorter than 5 ns, i. e., the laser pulse duration, was observed. By integrating the pulse shape, a minor slow component was evidenced, which can be explained in terms of trapping-detrapping effects. Extreme UV gas sources and a toroidal grating vacuum monochromator were used to measure the device response down to 20 nm in continuous mode. In particular, the extreme UV He spectrum was measured and the He II m, 30.4 nm and He I 58.4 nm emission lines were clearly detected. The measured time response of 0.2 s is totally due to the instrumental readout time constants. In both experimental setups an extremely good stability and reproducibility of the device response were obtained, whereas no persistent photoconductivity nor undesirable pumping effects were observed. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.