Modelling of diamond detectors: effects of the polycrystalline structure and a pulse shape analysis

Diamond is radiation-hard. This makes CVD diamond films suitable for particle detector applications without a significant degradation in performance due to radiation damage. We have built up a computer simulation of the detection mechanism in diamond detectors. We consider three different morphologies for the CVD diamond films: single crystal (SC), highly oriented (HOD), and randomly oriented polycrystalline (PCD) diamond. Our model of a diamond detector enables us to relate the morphology of the material and the geometry of the system to predict the detector's response. In this paper, we consider two different electrode configurations: parallel plate and interdigitated strips geometry; by applying the Shockley-Ramo theorem we calculate the total induced charge on the electrodes and we analyse some effects related to the presence of defects and other inhomogeneities related to the polycrystalline structure. In particular, we study the non-uniformity of the detector's response and the appearance of slow components in the output signal. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.