Skip to content

Diamond photovoltaic radiation sensor using pn junction

MetadataDetails
Publication Date2018-08-27
JournalApplied Physics Letters
AuthorsTakehiro Shimaoka, Satoshi Koizumi, M. Tanaka
InstitutionsHigh Energy Accelerator Research Organization, National Institute for Materials Science
Citations9

Because of its heat resistance and radiation hardness, diamond is a suitable semiconductor material for use in radiation sensors operating under harsh environments. To date, diamond radiation sensor designs have been constrained to Metal-Insulator-Metal structures. Instead of this structure, the pn junction offers several advantages for radiation sensors such as high built-in bias, electric field control, and depletion layer thickness control through doping profile design. We formed diamond pn diodes with ideal electric properties. A large built-in bias of 4.7 eV was obtained. The diode represented less than 10āˆ’11 A of low leakage current up to nearly 1 MV/cm of a high electric field. We detected alpha particles at zero-bias voltage using the pn diode, which opens the possibility of realizing compact radiation sensors.