Metallisation of single crystal diamond radiation detectors

Abstract

Properties such as a large band gap, high thermal conductivity and resistance to radiation damage make diamond an extremely attractive candidate for detectors in next generation particle physics experiments. This paper presents our technique for metallisation of a single crystal diamond grown by chemical vapour deposition (CVD) for use as a radiation detector, suitable for operation in places such as the Large Hadron Collider. The front and back side of the diamond are metalised with aluminium and gold on top of titanium respectively, after which the diamond is mounted and read out via a charge sensitive preamplifier. The device is found to collect charge at an efficiency of 97%.