Christian Dorfer

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/cm2 to 10 MHz/cm2. 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.

Significant progress has been achieved with silicon carbide (SiC) high power electronics and quantum technologies, both drawing upon the unique properties of this material. In this Perspective, we briefly review some of the main defect characterization techniques that have enabled breakthroughs in these fields. We consider how key data have been collected, interpreted, and used to enhance the application of SiC. Although these fields largely rely on separate techniques, they have similar aims for the material quality and we identify ways in which the electronics and quantum technology fields can further interact for mutual benefit.

The observation of Higgs boson production in association with a top quark-antiquark pair is reported, based on a combined analysis of proton-proton collision data at center-of-mass energies of √s = 7, 8, and 13 TeV, corresponding to integrated luminosities of up to 5.1, 19.7, and 35.9  fb^(-1), respectively. The data were collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC. The results of statistically independent searches for Higgs bosons produced in conjunction with a top quark-antiquark pair and decaying to pairs of W bosons, Z bosons, photons, τ leptons, or bottom quark jets are combined to maximize sensitivity. An excess of events is observed, with a significance of 5.2 standard deviations, over the expectation from the background-only hypothesis. The corresponding expected significance from the standard model for a Higgs boson mass of 125.09 GeV is 4.2 standard deviations. The combined best fit signal strength normalized to the standard model prediction is 1.26^(+0.31)_(−0.26).

Abstract 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 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 protons cm −2 and 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 and the damage constant for diamond irradiated with 800 MeV protons to be . Moreover, we observe the 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.

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.

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.

We demonstrate that the multi-photon absorption edge transient-current technique (edge-TCT) can be used to three-dimensionally map the impact of defect distributions on device characteristics in situ inside the bulk of silicon carbide devices. A ∼5 μm wide defect-rich layer induced by proton irradiation at a depth of ∼27 μm was investigated in 4H-SiC samples and compared to the pristine case. Edge-TCT enables mapping of the position of the implantation peak as well as to identify the space charge polarity around the implanted region. The edge-TCT results are compared to Monte Carlo simulations of the proton irradiation that were verified by luminescence measurements and TCAD-based device simulations. In result, edge-TCT is found to be capable of distinguishing different device regions due to its charge sensitivity and directly visualizing space charge regions, facilitating calibration of charge carrier distribution models in semiconductor devices.

This work presents the characterization of minority carrier traps in epitaxial n-type 4H-SiC after high fluence neutron irradiation using minority carrier transient spectroscopy (MCTS) in a temperature range of 20 K to 660 K. Three minority carrier trap levels are reported, labelled as X, B and Y, whose activation energies were estimated by Arrhenius analysis and where the B level is assigned to substitutional boron (B Si ). The dynamic behaviour of the trap levels was studied by consecutive temperature scans.

In sight of the luminosity increase of the High Luminosity-LHC (HL-LHC), most experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are planning upgrades for their innermost layers in the next 5–10 years. These upgrades will require more radiation tolerant technologies than exist today. Usage of Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) diamond as detector material is one of the potentially interesting technologies for the upgrade. CVD diamond has been used extensively in the beam condition monitors of BaBar, Belle, CDF and all LHC experiments. Measurements of the radiation tolerance of the highest quality polycrystalline CVD material for a range of proton energies, pions and neutrons obtained with this material are presented. In addition, new results on the evolution of various semiconductor parameters as a function of the dose rate are described.

We demonstrate the application of two-photon absorption transient current technique to wide bandgap semiconductors. We utilize it to probe charge transport properties of single-crystal Chemical Vapor Deposition (scCVD) diamond. The charge carriers, inside the scCVD diamond sample, are excited by a femtosecond laser through simultaneous absorption of two photons. Due to the nature of two-photon absorption, the generation of charge carriers is confined in space (3-D) around the focal point of the laser. Such localized charge injection allows to probe the charge transport properties of the semiconductor bulk with a fine-grained 3-D resolution. Exploiting spatial confinement of the generated charge, the electrical field of the diamond bulk was mapped at different depths and compared to an X-ray diffraction topograph of the sample. Measurements utilizing this method provide a unique way of exploring spatial variations of charge transport properties in transparent wide-bandgap semiconductors.

We have 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) × 10 15 protons/cm 2 , (1.43 ± 0.14) × 10 16 neutrons/cm 2 and (6.5 ± 0.5) × 10 14 pions/cm 2 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 data sets 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 1.61 ± 0.07 (stat) ± 0.15 (syst) × 10 -18 cm 2 /(p µm), the damage constant for diamond irradiated with fast reactor neutrons to be 2.65 ± 0.13 (stat) ± 0.16 (syst) × 10 -18 cm 2 /(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 cm 2 /(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 ± 0.27 times more damaging than 24 GeV protons, fast reactor neutrons are 4.27 ± 0.34 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 have performed of Chemical Vapor Deposition diamond.Finally, we confirm the FWHM/MP ratio of the signal spectrum, a measure of the spatial uniformity of the collected charge, decreases with fluence for polycrystalline Chemical Vapor Deposition diamond and this effect can also be described by a universal curve.

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.

The planned upgrade of the LHC to the High-Luminosity-LHC will push the luminosity limits above the original design values. Since the current detectors will not be able to cope with this environment ATLAS and CMS are doing research to find more radiation tolerant technologies for their innermost tracking layers. Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) diamond is an excellent candidate for this purpose. Detectors out of this material are already established in the highest irradiation regimes for the beam condition monitors at LHC. The RD42 collaboration is leading an effort to use CVD diamonds also as sensor material for the future tracking detectors. The signal behaviour of highly irradiated diamonds is presented as well as the recent study of the signal dependence on incident particle flux. There is also a recent development towards 3D detectors and especially 3D detectors with a pixel readout based on diamond sensors.

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 status of material development of poly-crystalline chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond 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 the first beam test results from 3D detectors made with poly-crystalline CVD diamond are presented. Finally the first analysis of LHC data from the ATLAS Diamond Beam Monitor (DBM) which is based on pixelated poly-crystalline CVD diamond sensors bump-bonded to pixel readout electronics is shown.

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 $4 \times 10^{15}\,n/\mathrm{cm^2}$.

As a possible candidate for extremely radiation tolerant tracking devices we present a novel detector design - namely 3D detectors - based on poly-crystalline CVD diamond sensors with a pixel readout. The fabrication of recent 3D detectors as well their results in recent beam tests are presented. We measured the hit efficiency and signal response of two 3D diamond detectors with 50 × 50 μm cell sizes using pixel readout chip technologies currently used at CMS and ATLAS. In all runs, both devices attained efficiencies >98 % in a normal incident test beam of minimum ionising particles. The highest efficiency observed during the beam tests was 99.2 %.

We have measured the radiation tolerance of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond against protons and neutrons.The relative radiation damage constant of 24 GeV protons, 800 MeV protons, 70 MeV protons, and fast reactor neutrons is presented.The results are used to combine the measured data into a universal damage curve for diamond material.

A laser-based two-photon absorption transient-current technique is discussed. In this method free charge carriers are excited in the focal point inside the material. We record the current response of electron and hole drift in an externally applied electric field. Charge collection efficiency, electric field distribution and trapping rates are extracted.