Polycrystalline chemical-vapor-deposited diamond for fast and ultra-fast neutron detection

An intrinsic sensor (diameter 16 mm, thickness 300 μm ) based on chemical vapor deposition derived polycrystalline diamond was developed. Ultra low dark current under 100 pA and high n/γ discrimination of 15.8 were obtained on this device, which enable it to be used for neutron detection in multi-radiation field. Moreover, the neutron sensitivity of this detector was characterized theoretically and experimentally. And for fast and ultra-fast neutron, the detection sensitivity is in the magnitude of 10−17 to 10−16 C cm2/n with good stability and negligible pump effect. All these results indicate that the as-prepared sensor to be ideal for fast and ultra-fast neutron monitoring, and it may pave the way to build neutron detector with low cost and large sensitive area with diamond.