Performance of 5-μm PIN diamond diodes as thermal neutron detectors

摘要

Diamond PIN diodes with an approximately 5-μm thick i-layer and coated with a thin boron nitride (BN) layer have been tested with a thermal neutron beam. For a flux of 4.4 x 106 n/s/cm2, count rates were on the order of 30-100 counts per second depending on the thickness of the BN neutron converter layer. Pulse height spectra showed features associated with α and ~7Li fission products consistent with the thickness of the BN layer. An irradiation test with a 1 MeV neutron equivalent fluence of 1015 n/cm2 showed no significant alteration in the count rate of the tested detector.