Basic characteristics of synthetic-diamond scintillator

Abstract

To extend the use of diamond detectors to particle detail analysis and the development of radiation monitoring applications, we conducted a study on synthetic-diamond scintillators, which have so far not been sufficiently evaluated. To understand the basic characteristics of scintillators, we measured the luminescence characteristics of two types of commercially available synthetic diamonds manufactured via high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) methods. The color center of each diamond was identified by measuring the radio-luminescence spectrum under X-ray excitation, and the scintillation light waveform was measured by irradiating α-rays and β-rays. The light yield of the HPHT diamond with a nitrogen concentration less than 200 ppm had a higher emission than that of the CVD diamond with a nitrogen concentration of less than 1 ppm; the light yield for the former was estimated to be (5.5 ± 0.5) × 104 ph/MeV. Because of the significant light yield and physical properties of diamonds, unique particle detectors can be achieved.