| NUKLEONIKA 2011, 56(2):143-147
CVD DIAMOND DETECTORS FOR FAST ALPHA PARTICLES
ESCAPING FROM THE TOKAMAK D-T PLASMA
Iwona Wodniak1,2, Krzysztof Drozdowicz1, Jan Dankowski1, Barbara Gabańska1, Andrzej Igielski1, Arkadiusz Kurowski1, Barbara Marczewska1, Tomasz Nowak1,
Urszula Woźnicka1
1 The Henryk Niewodniczański Institute of Nuclear
Physics of Polish Academy of Sciences,
152 Radzikowskiego Str., 30-341 Kraków, Poland
2 Interdisciplinary Doctoral Studies, AGH University of Science and Technology,
30 A. Mickiewicza Ave., 31-342 Kraków, Poland
Measurements of the so-called lost alpha particles escaping from thermonuclear plasma in future tokamaks (such as ITER) for energy production would be essential for monitoring the energy balance in these devices. The detection would have to be carried out in a harsh environment (with high nuclear radiation fluxes, high temperature, etc.), which limits the use of common semiconductors for charged particle detection. Diamond seems to be an attractive material for alpha particle detectors in these conditions. In this paper an analysis of properties of a diamond detector for spectrometric alpha measurements is reported. A high purity CVD (chemical vapour deposition) single crystal diamond detector was used, fabricated for this dedicated application by the Diamond Detector Ltd. The energy calibration was carried out using a triple alpha particle isotope source, AMR33 (239Pu, 241Am, 244Cm). A very good energy resolution, ca. 20 keV at ca. 5.5 MeV had been obtained, which is comparable to that of the silicon detector. The linearity of the diamond detector amplitude response to the alpha particle energy was analyzed with the use of mono-energetic (0.4–2 MeV) ion beam from a Van de Graaff accelerator. Results of the measurements using the AMR33 source deviate at most 30 keV from the calibration line obtained in this way.
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