Simulation and test of a new MicroDosimeter based upon Single Crystal Diamond

In recent years, many ionizing radiation detectors based upon artificial diamond have been proposed and applied in many fields and at various energy ranges. Single Crystal Diamond (SCD) have not been used, so far, in microdosimetry and this paper represents one of the first attempts to obtain spectra of the energy deposition in artificial-diamond sensitive volumes of the order of the micrometer. The new Diamond MicroDosimeter (DMD) is based upon a layered structure with a detecting region of less then 5 μm. This prototype is fabricated at Rome “Tor Vergata” University using a Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) technique depositing a thin layer of highly controlled thickness. The paper reports the comparison between simulations performed by the Monte Carlo code FLUKA and first experimental tests performed with alphas to measure the dose distribution in terms of lineal energy.