Radiation monitoring with diamond sensors in BABAR

In order to safeguard the silicon vertex tracker in the BABAR detector from excessive radiation damage, cumulative dose and instantaneous dose rates are continuously monitored. As an upgrade to the current radiation monitoring system which uses silicon PIN-diodes, we are examining the possible use of single-crystal and/or polycrystalline chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamonds. The radiation responses of several CVD diamonds have been tested on time scales from tens of nanoseconds to thousands of seconds in order to determine their integrity in monitoring accumulated dose and their response to large sudden changes in dose rates. Two polycrystalline CVD diamonds have been installed near the silicon vertex tracker near existing silicon PIN-diodes for comparative studies. CVD diamond radiation sensors have also been tested using ⁶⁰Co and in various magnetic field configurations.