Growth of Heteroepitaxial CVD Diamond Films on Ir/YSZ/Si(001) for Detector Applications

For future particle accelerator experiments, e.g. at FAIR, we are developing novel, advanced diamond sensors grown by chemical vapour deposition (CVD), capable on one hand of replacing the commonly used silicon tracking devices and being on the other hand an advantageous alternative to polycrystalline or single-crystal diamond sensors used so far in beam diagnostics and timing applications. By using heteroepitaxial diamond films grown on Ir/YSZ/Si(001) we want to bridge the gap between polycrystalline (which exhibits inhomogeneous incomplete charge collection) and single-crystal CVD diamond (i.e. of small areas), enabling the fabrication of large-area diamond sensors of good homogeneity, high drift velocity of the charge carriers, and of almost complete collection of the particle induced charge.