Charge Carrier Properties of Single-Crystal CVD Diamond Up to 473 K

The drift behavior of charge carriers, generated by alpha-particles of a reference Am-241-source, in electronic grade, single crystal chemical vapor deposition (scCVD) diamond was investigated by the transient current technique (TCT) from room temperature up to approximate to 473 K. Furthermore, the alpha-spectroscopic behavior was analyzed in terms of charge collection and spectroscopic resolution for the same temperature range. All conducted measurements revealed complete charge collection up to the maximum temperature. The electron-hole-pair creation energies were derived from the TCT as well as from the spectroscopic measurements. The herein presented results imply that high temperature alpha-spectroscopy with diamond-based semiconductor solid state detectors, using presently available scCVD sensor substrates, is feasible at least up to 473 K. Only at the highest applied temperature, the conducted TCT measurements showed distorted signal traces, indicating a uniform positive space charge built-up.