Charge Collection Distance / Diamond Radiation Detection

This page is the area where I explain some of my projects I am currently working on, as well as those that have been completed in the very recent past but are relevant still. Any questions about them are welcome and can be submitted by way of the feedback page and will be answered in some way or another... Using diamond as opposed to silicon or gallium arsenide, radiation hardened particle detectors can be constructed. I am building a charge collection distance setup test stand.

This was a quick run of a system I set up. I simply wanted to establish a count per minute with an old IBM Thinkpad and a GM tube. The Geiger-Muller tube is connected by a RS232 cable connected to a 3.5mm plug cord. It was very easy to build, but annoying to get the software working. I still need to cut the banana connector holes and mount the handles. The rack-mounted power supply to run the collection distance setup. Two 3V Acopian supplies and one combination triple 12V-12V-5V supply makes for an easy setup supplying +12V, -12V, +15V, -15V, and +5V for the CCD. It's also really heavy.

After installing the power switch, the banana plugs, and the handles, then mounting the whole thing in the rack. It's about time I put the power cable in and configured the whole thing to work properly. I used up nearly all the space on the rack face for holding up the bodies of the Acopian power supplies, and all that was left is that insanely crowded spot for the banana plugs and power swich. Oh well, it worked out great. This is the basic concept behind radiation-induced conductivity, which is the principle of how the detectors work. This is the basic setup for particle detection using diamonds as the semiconducting material. Eventully I will have to design a diamond detector using Sentaurus TCAD, and compare the results given by the model and the measured results. I'm not anxiously looking forward to working with Strontium-90 more than I already do at work, but I'm going to have to for this project. Here is a diamond mounted on a sapphire using crystal bond, then metallized with aluminum. The camera is having trouble understanding what to focus on because of the reflection. The diamond is lifted off with acetone, which also removes the photoresist covering the unwanted aluminum pattern.