Extreme UV photodetectors based on CVD single crystal diamond in a p-type/intrinsic/metal configuration

We report on extreme UV (EUV) photodetectors based on CVD single crystal diamond in a p-type/intrinsic/metal configuration fabricated and tested at Roma Tor Vergata University laboratory, operating in a sandwich geometry. Particular care has been devoted to the design of the device geometry in order to take advantage of the internal junction electric field and to minimize the signal contribution arising from secondary electron emission, which is known to strongly affect the detection properties in the UV and EUV regions. The device has been characterized in the EUV spectral region by using both He and He-Ne DC gas discharge radiation sources and a toroidal grating vacuum monochromator, with 5 A wavelength resolution. The reproducibility test has been performed on several photodetectors showing a high uniformity of the device performances. The devices showed negligible undesired effects such as persistent photocurrent and memory effects, resulting in extremely promising stability features of the p-type/intrinsic/metal structured device. The devices have been tested at different bias voltages between 0 and 15 V, showing the best performances at 0 bias voltage. Finally, the external quantum efficiency (EQE), as well as the responsivity have been measured in the range 20 to 100 nm. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.