Performance of CVD diamond microstrip detectors under particle irradiation

The inherent properties of diamond make it an ideal material for detectors in the high rate, high radiation environments near the collision point of future colliders such as the LHC. We have constructed charged particle position sensitive detectors using high quality chemical vapor deposited (CVD) diamond. Using detectors with a 50 /spl mu/m strip pitch, we achieved a most probable signal-to-noise ratio of 27/1 and a position resolution of 12-15 /spl mu/m. To ascertain the radiation hardness properties of CVD diamond, we have exposed detectors to 10 MRad /sup 60/Co, 5/spl times/10/sup 14/ 300 MeV pions/cm/sup 2/, 10/sup 14/ 500 MeV protons/cm/sup 2/, and 10/sup 15/ neutrons/cm/sup 2/. The results show that CVD diamond is an extremely radiation hard material and well suited for particle detector production.