High-temperature long-lasting stability assessment of a single-crystal diamond detector under high-flux neutron irradiation

¹ Department of Industrial Engineering, Università degli studi di Roma Tor Vergata - Via del Politecnico 1, I-00133, Roma, Italy
² ENEA C.R. Frascati, Department of Fusion and Nuclear Safety and Security - Via Enrico Fermi 45, I-00044, Frascati (Roma), Italy
³ Science and Technology Facilities Council, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (ISIS Facility) Chilton Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 0QX, UK

^(a) riccardo.pilotti@enea.it (corresponding author)

Received: 25 September 2016
Accepted: 9 December 2016

Abstract

An innovative diamond detector layout is presented that is designed to operate at high temperature under intense neutron and gamma fluxes. It is made of a 500 μm “electronic grade” diamond film with 100 nm thick Ag metal contacts deposited onto each surface of the film by means of thermal evaporation. A thick layer of ⁶LiF has been deposited on top of one of the two Ag contacts to make the detector sensitive to thermal neutrons. The device was tested at the ISIS spallation neutron source (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK) using the INES beam line. The detector was continuously irradiated for 100 hours in vacuum , exposed to a neutron flux of about 10⁶ n cm⁻² s⁻¹ at a temperature . The aim of this experiment was to study the time dependence of the diamond detector performance while operating at high temperature under irradiation, providing a first experimental proof of reliable continuous operation for 100 hours at high temperature in a harsh environment.