A single-crystal diamond-based thermal neutron beam monitor for instruments at pulsed neutron sources

Single-crystal diamond detectors manufactured through a Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) technique are recent technology devices that have been employed in reactor and Tokamak environments in order to detect both thermal and almost monochromatic 14 MeV neutrons produced in deuterium-tritium (d-t) nuclear fusion reactions. Their robustness and compactness are the key features that can be exploited for different applications as well. Aim of the present experimental investigation is the assessment of the performance of a diamond detector as a thermal neutron beam monitor at pulsed neutron sources. To this aim, a test measurement was carried out on the Italian Neutron Experimental Station (INES) beam line at the ISIS spallation neutron source (Great Britain). The experiment has shown the capability of these devices to work at a pulsed neutron source for beam monitoring purposes. Other interesting possible applications are also suggested. [All rights reserved Elsevier]

Microdosimetric measurements of a monoenergetic and modulated Bragg Peaks of 62 MeV therapeutic proton beam with a synthetic single crystal diamond microdosimeter

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate for the first time the performance of a synthetic single crystal diamond detector for the microdosimetric characterization of clinical 62 MeV ocular therapy proton beams. Methods A novel diamond microdosimeter with a well-defined sensitive volume was fabricated and tested with a monoenergetic and spread-out Bragg peak (SOBP) of the CATANA therapeutic proton beam in Catania, Italy. The whole sensitive volume of the detector has an active planar-sectional area of 100 mu m x 100 mu m and a thickness of approximately 6.3 um. Microdosimetric measurements were performed at several water equivalent depths, corresponding to positions of clinical relevance. From the measured spectra, microdosimetric quantities such as the frequency mean lineal energy (y over bar F), dose mean lineal energy (y over bar D) as well as microdosimetric relative biological effectiveness (RBE mu) values were derived for each depth along both a pristine Bragg curve and SOBP. Finally, Geant4 Monte Carlo simulations were performed modeling the detector geometry and CATANA beamline in order to calculate the average linear energy transfer (LET) values in the diamond active layer and water. Results The microdosimetric spectra acquired by the diamond microdosimeter show different shapes as a function of the water equivalent depths. No spectral distortion, due to pile-up events and polarization effects, was observed. The experimental spectra have a very low detection threshold due to the electronic noise during the irradiation of about 1 keV/mu m. They over bar Fandy over bar Dvalues were in agreement with expected trends, showing a sharp increase in mean lineal energy at the distal edge of the Bragg peak. In addition, a good agreement between the mean lineal energy values and the calculated average LET ones was also observed. Finally, the RBE values evaluated with the diamond microdosimeter were in excellent agreement with those obtained with a mini tissue equivalent proportional counter as well as with radiobiological measurements in the same proton beam field. Conclusions The microdosimetric performance of the tested synthetic single crystal diamond microdosimeter clearly indicates its suitability for quality assurance in clinical proton therapy beam

H-Terminated Diamond MISFETs with V2O5 as Insulator

In this work we report on the performance of a MISFET device realized by exploiting the peculiarities of Vanadium Pentoxide (V2O5) as insulating material between the gate metal and the hydrogenated single crystal diamond surface. As opposed to the typical oxide materials (such as Al2O3), the high electron affinity of the proposed oxide allows for the p-type charge transfer doping of the underlying diamond substrate. The comparison of the hydrogenated diamond surface with and without the V2O5 are reported jointly with the electrical performance of the optimized MISFETs and a preliminary small-signal equivalent circuit

Time-dependent degradation of hydrogen-terminated diamond MESFETs

In this paper, we discuss the changes in the electrical performance induced by operating time in hydrogen-terminated diamond MESFETs for high power and high frequency applications.During the single stress step an increase of the current flowing in the sample is visible, possibly caused by the self-heating of the sample, as supported by temperature-dependent measurements, and by charge detrapping processes. In the full experiment the drain current was found to decrease, whereas the gate current remains below the detection limit.In the characterization phase, we detected an increase in on-resistance, a decrease in the saturation current, a shift in the threshold voltage and a decrease in the transconductance peak. We found a time-dependent behavior for all these parameters, showing a further worsening up to 10 minutes after the end of the stress step. The time-dependent behavior is related to the creation of defects inside the structure and not to the self-heating, since the dynamic variation was found to increase as a consequence of stress, whereas the power dissipation decreases. The increase in the concentration of defects with activation energy of 0.30 eV was confirmed by ON-resistance and threshold voltage transient spectroscopy.The variations in on-resistance and threshold voltage are not correlated in the full duration of the stress, suggesting that the generation of defects has (i) a different impact or (ii) a different generation rate in different parts of the device, with (iii) a possible role of the worsening of the contacts. Furthermore, a decrease in electroluminescence with higher magnitude than the decrease in drain current was found, compatible with an increased carrier-defect scattering

Fission diamond detector tests at the ISIS spallation neutron source

A compact device for monitoring of fast neutron fluxes is presented. The device is based on single crystal diamond obtained by the Chemical Vapor Deposition technique coupled to a uranium converter foil where neutron interaction results in emission of charged particles detected inside the diamond. Thermal and fast neutrons are detected using natural uranium containing both 235U and 238U. Biparametric (pulse height and time of flight) data collection was used at the ISIS pulsed neutron source to distinguish events from 235U, 238U and from carbon break-up reactions inside the diamond

14 MeV calibration of JET neutron detectors-phase 1: Calibration and characterization of the neutron source

In view of the planned DT operations at JET, a calibration of the JET neutron monitors at 14 MeV neutron energy is needed using a 14 MeV neutron generator deployed inside the vacuum vessel by the JET remote handling system. The target accuracy of this calibration is 10% as also required by ITER, where a precise neutron yield measurement is important, e.g. for tritium accountancy. To achieve this accuracy, the 14 MeV neutron generator selected as the calibration source has been fully characterised and calibrated prior to the in-vessel calibration of the JET monitors. This paper describes the measurements performed using different types of neutron detectors, spectrometers, calibrated long counters and activation foils which allowed us to obtain the neutron emission rate and the anisotropy of the neutron generator, i.e.The neutron flux and energy spectrum dependence on emission angle, and to derive the absolute emission rate in 4π sr. The use of high resolution diamond spectrometers made it possible to resolve the complex features of the neutron energy spectra resulting from the mixed D/T beam ions reacting with the D/T nuclei present in the neutron generator target. As the neutron generator is not a stable neutron source, several monitoring detectors were attached to it by means of an ad hoc mechanical structure to continuously monitor the neutron emission rate during the in-vessel calibration. These monitoring detectors, two diamond diodes and activation foils, have been calibrated in terms of neutrons/counts within ± 5% total uncertainty. A neutron source routine has been developed, able to produce the neutron spectra resulting from all possible reactions occurring with the D/T ions in the beam impinging on the Ti D/T target. The neutron energy spectra calculated by combining the source routine with a MCNP model of the neutron generator have been validated by the measurements. These numerical tools will be key in analysing the results from the in-vessel calibration and to derive the response of the JET neutron detectors to DT plasma neutrons starting from the response to the generator neutrons, and taking into account all the calibration circumstances

Investigation of deuterium trapping and release in the JET divertor during the third ILW campaign using TDS

Selected set of samples from JET ITER-Like Wall (JET-ILW) divertor tiles exposed in 2015-2016 has been analysed using Thermal Desorption Spectrometry (TDS). The deuterium (D) amounts obtained with TDS were compared with Nuclear Reaction Analysis (NRA). The highest amount of D was found on the top part of inner divertor which has regions with the thickest deposited layers as for divertor tiles removed in 2014. This area resides deep in the scrape-off layer and plasma configurations for the second (ILW-2, 2013-2014) and the third (ILW-3, 2015-2016) JET-ILW campaigns were similar. Agreement between TDS and NRA is good on the apron of Tile 1 and on the upper vertical region whereas on the lower vertical region of Tile 1 the NRA results are clearly smaller than the TDS results. Inner divertor Tile 3 has somewhat less D than Tiles 0 and 1, and the D amount decreases towards the lower part of the tile. The D retention at the divertor inner and outer corner regions is not symmetric as there is more D retention poloidally at the inner than at the outer divertor corner. In most cases the TDS spectra for the ILW-3 samples are different from the corresponding ILW-2 spectra because HD and D-2 release occurs at higher temperatures than from the ILW-2 samples indicating that the low energy traps have been emptied during the plasma operations and that D is either in the energetically deep traps or located deeper in the sample

EDGE2D-EIRENE simulations of the influence of isotope effects and anomalous transport coefficients on near scrape-off layer radial electric field

EDGE2D-EIRENE (the 'code') simulations show that radial electric field, Er, in the near scrape-off layer (SOL) of tokamaks can have large variations leading to a strong local E x B shear greatly exceeding that in the core region. This was pointed out in simulations of JET plasmas with varying divertor geometry, where the magnetic configuration with larger predicted near SOL E-r was found to have lower H-mode power threshold, suggesting that turbulence suppression in the SOL by local E. x. B shear can be a player in the L-H transition physics (Delabie et al 2015 42nd EPS Conf. on Plasma Physics (Lisbon, Portugal, 22-26 June 2015) paper O3.113 (http://ocs.ciemat.es/EPS2015PAP/pdf/O3.113.pdf), Chankin et al 2017 Nucl. Mater. Energy 12 273). Further code modeling of JET plasmas by changing hydrogen isotopes (H-D-T) showed that the magnitude of the near SOL E-r is lower in H cases in which the H-mode threshold power is higher (Chankin et al 2017 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 59 045012). From the experiment it is also known that hydrogen plasmas have poorer particle and energy confinement than deuterium plasmas, consistent with the code simulation results showing larger particle diffusion coefficients at the plasma edge, including SOL, in hydrogen plasmas (Maggi et al 2018 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 60 014045). All these experimental observations and code results support the hypothesis that the near SOL E x B shear can have an impact on the plasma confinement. The present work analyzes neutral ionization patterns of JET plasmas with different hydrogen isotopes in L-mode cases with fixed input power and gas puffing rate, and its impact on target electron temperature, T-e, and SOL E-r. The possibility of a self-feeding mechanism for the increase in the SOL E-r via the interplay between poloidal E x B drift and target T-e is discussed. It is also shown that reducing anomalous turbulent transport coefficients, particle diffusion and electron and ion heat conductivities, leads to higher peak target T-e and larger E-r, suggesting the possibility of a positive feedback loop, under an implicitly made assumption that the E x B shear in the SOL is capable of suppressing turbulence