Fabrication and testing of a microstrip particle detector based on highly oriented diamond films

A particle detector for high flux applications has been fabricated based on highly oriented diamond (HOD) films. Relatively thick HOD films were achie ved by combining the bias enhanced nucleation (BEN) in a microwave plasma c hemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) reactor and high rate growth process in a low pressure combustion flame (LPCF) reactor. Following the diamond deposit ion, Si substrate was etched away to obtain. a free standing, 4 mm diameter diamond membrane. A Ti/Au microstrip electrode pattern was applied to one side of the detector to provide spatial resolution. The detector performanc e was tested by measuring the energy spectra of alpha-particles emitted fro m an Am-241 source. As compared to the performance of a polycrystalline dia mond detector, the HOD detector showed a three to four fold improvement in performance, which was close to that obtained for single crystalline diamon d detectors. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.