Device for measuring the rate of energy loss and for detecting ionizing nuclear radiations against gamma-radiation background

Claim 1

A device for measuring the rate of energy loss and for detecting ionizing nuclear radiations against a gamma-radiation background, comprising in combination: a housing; a diamond nuclear radiation detector mounted in said housing, said detector comprising a diamond crystal plate including contacts formed at the opposite sides thereof and designed for the applying of an electric field to said plate when detecting ionizing nuclear radiations, one of said contacts being located on the irradiated side of said plate and being constituted as a blocking contact in relation to the charge carriers and the opposite contact being constituted of a material capable, in conjunction with the diamond crystal plate, of injecting the charge carriers under the influence of the electric field, the thickness of the plate between said contacts being no greater than the maximum drift length of the charge carriers created by the nuclear radiation in the diamond crystal plate under the influence of the applied electric field corresponding to the maximum drift rate; an amplifier having an input connected to said blocking contact; means for recording output signals; a detector power supply connected to said injecting contact of the diamond detector, the blocking and injecting contacts of said detector being constituted as layers permeable to incident nuclear radiation and of a material having an atomic number less than 15 and the thickness of the diamond crystal plate being less than the range of incident nuclear radiation, said thickness being d in the equation d < OR = delta Eta Tau E, where Eta is the mobility of charge carriers, Tau is the lifetime of charge carriers, E is the applied field strength, delta is the distance travelled by charge carriers under the influence of the applied electric field.

Claim 2

A device for measuring the rate of energy loss and for detecting ionizing nuclear radiations against a gamma-radiation background, comprising in combination: a housing; a diamond nuclear radiation detector mounted in said housing, said detector comprising a diamond crystal plate including contacts formed at the opposite sides thereof and designed for the applying of an electric field to said plate when detecting ionizing nuclear radiations, one of said contacts being located on the irradiated side of said plate and being constituted as a blocking contact in relation to the charge carriers and the opposite contact being constituted of a material capable, in conjunction with the diamond crystal plate, of injecting the charge carriers under the influence of the electric field, the thickness of the plate between said contacts being no greater than the maximum drift length of the charge carriers created by the nuclear radiation in the diamond crystal plate under the influence of the applied electric field corresponding to the maximum drift rate; an amplifier having an input connected to said blocking contact; means for recording output signals; a detector power supply connected to said injecting contact of the diamond detector, the blocking and injecting contacts of said detector being constituted as layers permeable to incident nuclear radiation and of a material having an atomic number less than 15 and the thickness of the diamond crystal plate being less than the range of incident nuclear radiation, said thickness being d in the equation d < OR = delta Eta Tau E, where Eta is the mobility of charge carriers, Tau is the lifetime of charge carriers, E is the applied field strength, delta is the distance travelled by charge carriers under the influence of the applied electric field.