Radiation hardness studies of CVD diamond detectors

The inherent properties of diamond make it an ideal material for tracking detectors especially in the high rate, high radiation environments of future colliders such as the LHC. In order to survive in this environment, detectors must be radiation hard. We have constructed charged particle detectors using high quality CVD diamond and performed radiation hardness tests on them. The signal response of diamond detectors to ionizing particles is measured before and after irradiation. Diamond detectors have been exposed to Co-60 photons at Argonne National Laboratory, 300 MeV/c pions at PSI, 500 MeV protons at TRIUMF and 5 MeV alpha particles at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The results show that CVD diamond is an extremely radiation hard material well suited for particle detector production.