TRANSPORT PROPERTIES OF NATURAL DIAMOND USED AS NUCLEAR-PARTICLE DETECTOR FOR A WIDE TEMPERATURE-RANGE

A thorough investigation has been done about the behavior of natural diamond as a radiation detector material for a wide temperature range. Drift velocities and mean free drift time have been determined at temperatures ranging between 85 K and 700 K and with electric fields up to 60 KV/cm. Average energy required to create an electron-hole pair and energy resolution have been measured in the 100 K – 400 K interval. The spectroscopic features of diamond detectors have also been analyzed on a broad temperature interval. It was found that as T approaches 500 K polarization phenomena begin, thus establishing the upper temperature limit for the detector operation. Copyright © 1978 by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.