The Super -FRS at the FAIR accelerator complex will adopt Chemical Vapor Deposition diamond detectors as radiation -hard particle rate counters. Their role will be to monitor the beam transmission for beams with ions rates up to 10(7) ions/spill and to calibrate the other beam diagnostics devices that are in duty at higher beam intensities. The target vacuum chamber of the Super -FRS hosts a 7 x 7mm(2) single crystal diamond and a 25 x 25 mm(2 )polycrystalline diamond: they are required to detect crossing particles with high efficiency ( > 98%) in the case of heavy ion species (Ar to U), and to stand for several years in an environment in which they can potentially accumulate a dose of a few MGy per year. Laboratory measurements and beam test campaigns were arranged in the past years for the validation of the proposed sensors, in particular for the case of the polycrystalline technology. Here we report the outcome of the irradiation of a sensor based on a 20 x 20 mm(2) polycrystalline diamond produced by Element Six, with high intensity 1 GeV/nucleon Pb and U beams at GSI (Darmstadt). The detector signal shape characteristics and the ion counting efficiency have been monitored by interleaving periods of low ions rates, to evaluate possible damages or performance degradation during and after a total bombardment of about 6 x 10(11) heavy ions.

As nuclear and particle physics facilities move to higher intensities, the detectors used there must be more radiation tolerant. Diamond is in use at many facilities due to its inherent radiation tolerance and ease of use. In this article we present our radiation tolerance measurements of the highest quality polycrystalline Chemical Vapor Deposition (pCVD) diamond material for irradiations from a range of proton energies, pions and neutrons up to a fluence of 2 x 10(16) particles/cm(2). We have measured the damage constant as a function of energy and particle species and compared it with theoretical models. We also present measurements of the rate dependence of pulse height for non-irradiated and irradiated pCVD diamond pad and pixel detectors, including detectors tested over a range of particle fluxes up to 20 MHz/cm(2) with both pad and pixel readout electronics. Our test beam results indicate a 2% upper limit to the pulse height dependence of unirradiated and neutron irradiated pCVD diamond detectors leading to the conclusion that the pulse height in pCVD diamond detectors is, at most, minimally dependent on the particle flux.

Objective.Ion computed tomography (iCT) is an imaging modality for the direct determination of the relative stopping power (RSP) distribution within a patient's body. Usually, this is done by estimating the path and energy loss of ions traversing the scanned volume utilising a tracking system and a separate residual energy detector. This study, on the other hand, introduces the first experimental study of a novel iCT approach based on time-of-flight (TOF) measurements, the so-called Sandwich TOF-iCT concept, which in contrast to any other iCT systems, does not require a residual energy detector for the RSP determination.Approach.A small Sandwich TOF-iCT demonstrator was built based on low gain avalanche diodes (LGADs), which are 4D-tracking detectors that allow to simultaneously measure the particle position and time-of-arrival with a precision better than 100μm and 100 ps, respectively. Using this demonstrator, the material and energy-dependent TOF was measured for several homogeneous PMMA slabs in order to calibrate the acquired TOF against the corresponding water equivalent thickness (WET). With this calibration, two proton radiographs (pRads) of a small aluminium stair phantom were recorded at MedAustron using 83 MeV and 100.4 MeV protons.Main results.Due to the simplified WET calibration models used in this very first experimental study of this novel approach, the difference between the measured and theoretical WET ranged between 37.09% and 51.12%. Nevertheless, the first TOF-based pRad was successfully recorded showing that LGADs are suitable detector candidates for Sandwich TOF-iCT.Significance.While the system parameters and WET estimation algorithms require further optimization, this work was an important first step to realize Sandwich TOF-iCT. Due to its compact and cost-efficient design, Sandwich TOF-iCT has the potential to make iCT more feasible and attractive for clinical application, which, eventually, could enhance the treatment planning quality.

Low Gain Avalanche Diode (LGAD) technology has been used to design and construct prototype and full-size beam detector systems for applications requiring simultaneous time and spatial precision. For these purposes, a dedicated LGAD strip sensor production has been conducted at Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) with different strip geometries and sizes. This contribution will review a wide variety of LGAD applications ranging from the reaction time (T0) detector for experiments utilizing proton and pion beams with the High Acceptance Di-Electron Spectrometer (HADES) at GSI in Darmstadt, Germany, to beam structure monitoring at the Superconducting DArmstadt LINear ACcelerator (S-DALINAC) at the Technische Universität Darmstadt operated in energy recovery mode and medical applications at the MedAustron facility in Wiener Neustadt, Austria. We will also give a prospect of further upgrade projects at GSI and FAIR facilities.

Diamond is used as detector material in high energy physics experiments due to its inherent radiation tolerance. The RD42 collaboration has measured the radiation tolerance of chemical vapour deposition (CVD) diamond against proton, pion, and neutron irradiation. Results of this study are summarized in this article. The radiation tolerance of diamond detectors can be further enhanced by using a 3D electrode geometry. We present preliminary results of a poly-crystalline CVD (pCVD) diamond detector with a 3D electrode geometry after irradiation and compare to planar devices of roughly the same thickness.

Charge carrier trapping in diamond crystals containing well-defined concentrations of dislocations was investigated by several complementary techniques. Samples with dislocation densities ndis between <1 × 107 and ≈1 × 109 cm−2 were grown heteroepitaxially on Ir/YSZ/Si(001). In optical pump–probe experiments, ambipolar diffusion coefficients were determined from the decay of light-induced transient free carrier gratings. Modeling their variation with excitation density yielded trapping cross sections σ of 29 and 10 nm for the dislocations and a stress-field-induced reduction in exciton binding energies from 80 to 73 and 60 meV at ndis = 1 × 108 and 1 × 109 cm−2, respectively. The lifetime measured by induced absorption scaled proportional to 1/ndis with absolute values ranging from 0.1 to 10 ns. In the electrical measurements on two sets of detector slices, electron–hole pairs were excited by α-particles and transport was measured separately for electrons and holes. Both types of carriers showed fast transient current signals. The time constant of the additional slow component exclusively seen for holes was in agreement with the activation energy of boron acceptors. Their concentration of ≈0.5 ppb yielded σ = 1.77 × 10−13 cm2 for charged point traps. Schubweg and carrier lifetime due to deep trapping roughly reproduced the 1/ndis trend. For electrons at 3 V/μm, a value σ = 40 nm was deduced. Cross sections for holes were significantly smaller. Differences in hole trapping between the samples are attributed to charging of dislocations controlled by chemical impurities. Increase in lifetime at high voltages is explained by reduced capture cross sections for hot carriers.

It is well known that synthetic diamond exhibits unique properties which make it an attractive material for a broad range of applications in the particle-detection field. In particular, thanks to its radiation hardness and availability in larger sizes, the polycrystalline (pc) diamond sample, grown by chemical vapour deposition (CVD), is especially suitable for online beam-monitoring applications, provided it demonstrates excellent counting performances. The present work reports the counting efficiency of a large 20.0 x 20.0 x 0.3 mm(3) pcCVD diamond detector irradiated by 62 MeV/nucl. carbon beams. The parameter under study was estimated at different particle rates by employing a combination of different detector counters in a sandwich configuration. Results show a counting efficiency of similar to 95% up to 0.7 MHz particle rate. The pcCVD diamond detector under study was selected among other prepared devices by studying their leakage current and photocurrent characteristics under X-ray irradiation.

Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) diamond is being considered as a material for particle detectors in a harsh radiation environment. This article presents beam test results of 3D pixel detectors fabricated with poly-crystalline CVD diamonds. The cells of the devices had a size of 50 mu m x 50 mu m with columns 2.6 mu m in diameter. The cells were ganged in a 3 x 2 and 5 x 1 pattern to match the layouts of the pixel read-out electronics currently used in the CMS and ATLAS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, respectively. In beam tests, using tracks reconstructed with a high precision tracking telescope, a tracking efficiency of 99.3% was achieved. The efficiency of both devices plateaus at a bias voltage of 30V. Also irradiated poly-crystalline CVD diamond pad detectors were investigated. In high rate beam tests with particle fluxes up to 20 MHz/cm(2) and irradiations up to 8 . 10(15) n/cm(2) it was shown that the pulse height of irradiated poly-crystalline CVD diamonds does not depend on flux to the O(2%).

We measured the radiation tolerance of commercially available diamonds grown by the Chemical Vapor Deposition process by measuring the charge created by a 120 GeV hadron beam in a 50 μm pitch strip detector fabricated on each diamond sample before and after irradiation. We irradiated one group of samples with 70 MeV protons, a second group of samples with fast reactor neutrons (defined as energy greater than 0.1 MeV), and a third group of samples with 200 MeV pions, in steps, to (8.8±0.9) × 1015 protons/cm2, (1.43±0.14) × 1016 neutrons/cm2, and (6.5±1.4) × 1014 pions/cm2, respectively. By observing the charge induced due to the separation of electron–hole pairs created by the passage of the hadron beam through each sample, on an event-by-event basis, as a function of irradiation fluence, we conclude all datasets can be described by a first-order damage equation and independently calculate the damage constant for 70 MeV protons, fast reactor neutrons, and 200 MeV pions. We find the damage constant for diamond irradiated with 70 MeV protons to be 1.62±0.07(stat)±0.16(syst)× 10−18 cm2/(p μm), the damage constant for diamond irradiated with fast reactor neutrons to be 2.65±0.13(stat)±0.18(syst)× 10−18 cm2/(n μm), and the damage constant for diamond irradiated with 200 MeV pions to be 2.0±0.2(stat)±0.5(syst)× 10−18 cm2/(π μm). The damage constants from this measurement were analyzed together with our previously published 24 GeV proton irradiation and 800 MeV proton irradiation damage constant data to derive the first comprehensive set of relative damage constants for Chemical Vapor Deposition diamond. We find 70 MeV protons are 2.60 ± 0.29 times more damaging than 24 GeV protons, fast reactor neutrons are 4.3 ± 0.4 times more damaging than 24 GeV protons, and 200 MeV pions are 3.2 ± 0.8 more damaging than 24 GeV protons. We also observe the measured data can be described by a universal damage curve for all proton, neutron, and pion irradiations we performed of Chemical Vapor Deposition diamond. Finally, we confirm the spatial uniformity of the collected charge increases with fluence for polycrystalline Chemical Vapor Deposition diamond, and this effect can also be described by a universal curve.

We have measured the radiation tolerance of poly-crystalline and single-crystalline diamonds grown by the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process by measuring the charge collected before and after irradiation in a 50 mu m pitch strip detector fabricated on each diamond sample. We irradiated one group of sensors with 800 MeV protons, and a second group of sensors with 24 GeV protons, in steps, to (1.34 +/- 0.08 x 10(16)) protons cm(-2) and (1.80 +/- 0.18 x 10(16)) protons cm(-2) respectively. We observe the sum of mean drift paths for electrons and holes for both poly-crystalline CVD diamond and single-crystalline CVD diamond decreases with irradiation fluence from its initial value according to a simple damage curve characterized by a damage constant for each irradiation energy and the irradiation fluence. We find for each irradiation energy the damage constant, for poly-crystalline CVD diamond to be the same within statistical errors as the damage constant for single-crystalline CVD diamond. We find the damage constant for diamond irradiated with 24 GeV protons to be 0.62( -0.01)(+0.01) (stat) (+0.06)(-0.06) (syst) x 10(-18) cm(2) (p mu m)(-1) and the damage constant for diamond irradiated with 800 MeV protons to be 1.04 (+0.02)(-0.02) (stat) (-0.04)(-0.05) (syst) x 10(-18) cm(2) (p mu m)(-1) Moreover, we observe the FWHM/MP pulse height decreases with fluence for poly-crystalline CVD material and within statistical errors does not change with fluence for single-crystalline CVD material for both 24 GeV proton irradiation and 800 MeV proton irradiation. Finally, we have measured the uniformity of each sample as a function of fluence and observed that for poly-crystalline CVD diamond the samples become more uniform with fluence while for single-crystalline CVD diamond the uniformity does not change with fluence.

Diamond is a material in use at many nuclear and high energy facilities due to its inherent radiation tolerance and ease of use. We have characterized detectors based on chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond before and after proton irradiation. We present preliminary results of the spatial resolution of unirradiated and irradiated CVD diamond strip sensors. In addition, we measured the pulse height versus particle rate of unirradiated and irradiated polycrystalline CVD (pCVD) diamond pad detectors up to a particle flux of $20\,\mathrm{MHz/cm^2}$ and a fluence up to $4 \times 10^{15}\,n/\mathrm{cm^2}$.

The present work reports on a long-term irradiation test performed on a 0.3-mm thick polycrystalline diamond detector prototype. The device, biased at 300 V, was continuously irradiated for about 60 h by using a C-12 beam at 62 MeV/nucl. at the LNS-INFN Cyclotron facility in Catania. An ionization chamber, calibrated using a single crystal diamond detector, was used to evaluate the total absorbed dose in the diamond detector under study. Data analysis carried out on recorded oscilloscope waveforms shows no significant variation of the signal properties in terms of amplitude, slope and charge after exposure to an integrated flux of 6.2. 10(13 )ions/cm(2). The results indicate that a polycrystalline diamond detector can be used for calibrating intensity monitors at the future superconducting fragment separator Super-FRS at FAIR (Darmstadt).

At present most experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are planning upgrades in the next 5-10 years for their innermost tracking layers as well as luminosity monitors to be able to take data as the luminosity increases and CERN moves toward the High Luminosity-LHC (HL-LHC). These upgrades will most likely require more radiation tolerant technologies than exist today. As a result this is one area of intense research, and Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) diamond is one such technology. CVD diamond has been used extensively in beam condition monitors as the innermost detectors in the highest radiation areas of all LHC experiments. This talk describes the preliminary radiation tolerance measurements of the highest quality polycrystalline CVD material for a range of proton energies and neutrons obtained with this material with the goal of elucidating the issues that should be addressed for future diamond based detectors. The talk presents the evolution of various semiconductor parameters as a function of dose.

The development of CVD grown single-crystal Diamond-on-Iridium (DOD sensors for charged-particle detection in hadrons and nuclei physics research is reviewed. A variety of samples grown at the University of Augsburg has been investigated with alpha and beta sources in the laboratory, swift ions from the heavy-ion synchrotron SIS in Darmstadt, and relativistic protons from the COoler-SYnchrotron COSY in Julich. The results obtained by means of I-E(V) studies, transient-current techniques (TCT), alpha-spectroscopy, and heavy-ion time-of-flight (ToF) measurements are compared to those of commercially available \polycrystalline and homoepitaxial single crystal CVD diamond sensors of electronic grade quality. In many aspects, the performance of DOI sensors was found quite similar to that of homoepitaxial counters, and in any case far superior to that of polycrystalline detectors. Under single-carrier drift conditions, the CCE and energy resolution (delta E/E) for holes reached levels CCEh > 95% and delta E/E-h similar to 0.3%, respectively, which correspond to values of the Schubweg w(h,e) well above the detector thickness. In contrast, the CCEe for electrons was typically lower than similar to 40%, leading to appreciable reduction of the detection efficiency in the dual-carrier drift mode (CCE similar to 60%), which characterizes the experiments with swift heavy ions and high-energy particles. We measured transport parameters comparable to those of homoepitaxial devices: mu(h)(0) similar to 3080-1756 and mu(e)(0) similar to 2276-1150 cm(2)/Vs, v(sat)(h) similar to(1.7-1.4) *10(7) and v(sat)(e) similar to(1.5-1.0)* 10(7) cm/s, as well as intrinsic time resolutions sigma(i) similar to 15 ps. It is shown, that substantial improvements have been achieved in recent years, albeit reproducibility and the understanding of the reduced electron collection remain challenging issues. Prime novelty: Comprehensive electrical characterization of intrinsic single-crystal CVD Diamond-OnIridium sensors produced at the University of Augsburg and their classification into the range of commercial electronic grade polycrystalline and homoepitaxial diamond sensors supplied by Element Six.

Detectors based on Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) diamond have been used extensively and successfully in beam conditions/beam loss monitors as the innermost detectors in the highest radiation areas of Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments. The startup of the LHC in 2015 brought a new milestone where the first polycrystalline CVD (pCVD) diamond pixel modules were installed in an LHC experiment and successfully began operation. The RD42 collaboration at CERN is leading the effort to develop polycrystalline CVD diamond as a material for tracking detectors operating in extreme radiation environments. The status of the RD42 project with emphasis on recent beam test results is presented.

Beam test results of the radiation tolerance study of chemical vapour deposition (CVD) diamond against different particle species and energies is presented. We also present beam test results on the independence of signal size on incident particle rate in charged particle detectors based on un-irradiated and irradiated poly-crystalline CVD diamond over a range of particle fluxes from 2 kHz/cm(2) to 10 MHz/cm(2). The pulse height of the sensors was measured with readout electronics with a peaking time of 6 ns. In addition functionality of poly-crystalline CVD diamond 3D devices was demonstrated in beam tests and 3D diamond detectors are shown to be a promising technology for applications in future high luminosity experiments.

The Xe-124(p,gamma) reaction has been measured for the first time at energies around the Gamow window by using stored ions at the ESR facility. The desired beam energies below 10 MeV/u introduce new experimental challenges like windowless ions detection under UHV conditions, extremely short beam lifetimes and efficient beam deceleration and cooling, all of which have been successfully met.

Time-of-flight (ToF) performances of large area diamond detectors based on polycrystalline samples of dimensions 20 mm  ×  20 mm and thickness of 0.3 mm are presented. The devices that feature segmented Cr/Au electrodes in a sandwich configuration were irradiated with a heavy ions 197Au beam of 1 GeV u−1 showing, when mounted with a separation distance of 2 cm, a ToF resolution σ¯ of 37.5 ps averaged on 16 strip pairs. When ToF measurements were performed over a particle path of 30 m, a resolution σ of 45 ps was achieved. The detectors were mounted on high-vacuum compatible printed circuit boards (PCBs) with integrated processing electronics. This is the first time that ToF measurements have been performed using integrated electronics with such a large separation distance between the diamond detectors.

Continuous Position Sensitive Diamond Detector (CPSDD) development started by using the single crystal (sc) diamond material. The intrinsic high detection efficiency of sc diamond, providing a high Signal to Noise (S/N) ratio, allowed the full testing of CPSDD with alpha-particles. However, due to the size limitations of sc diamond, the development of Large Area CPSDD (LACPSDD) naturally evolved towards the use of polycrystalline (pc) diamond material, produced by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The charge generated by the particle or radiation impact is collected through diamond like carbon (DLC) layers and associated metallic electrodes deposited on the sides of the pc diamond plate. The incident particle position can be obtained via charge division measurement by using charge sensitive amplifiers (CSA) connected to each electrode. In this paper we report the improvement in LACPSDD design by showing results obtained for two pc diamond detector (pcDD) structures. The first pcDD has a DLC layer with four electrodes at the corners of the front side, whereas the back side is fully metallized. The second pcDD has DLC layers on both sides of the detector plate, each equipped with two parallel electrode strips, along the x and y axis, respectively. Experimental results on the first pcDD showed an ion rate limitation, caused by the increase in the detector time constant (because of the larger detection area), and a low S/N ratio, due to the specific reduced signal associated with low Charge Collection Efficiency (CCE) of pc diamond. Subsequently, by using an optimized electronics and a better pc diamond (higher CCE), the second pcDD shows a higher S/N ratio, as well as a lower time constant. This paper presents simulation results on the time constant and an analytical evaluation of the S/N ratio, which serve to optimize the pc LACPSDDs. We also show experimental test results with alpha-particles, as well as Ni-54 (1.7 AGeV) and C-12 (11.4 AMeV) ion beams.Prime Novelty Statement: This paper presents the first large area continuous position sensitive diamond detectors implemented on polycrystalline CVD diamond material for single ionizing particle detection. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.