Thermally Stable and Radiation-Proof Visible-Light Photodetectors Made from N-Doped Diamond

Due to the limits of the physical properties of conventional semiconductors against harsh environments, seeking a suitable material for next-generation photoconversion devices with high-temperature stability and strong radiation hardness has become a hot issue. Here, visible-light photodetectors are fabricated on an N-doped diamond. Their visible-light detection via charge-neutralized impurity levels including multi-complex mid-gap states induced crystal defects shows photosensitivity of at least four orders (10(4)), the visible responsivity of 0.08 A W-1, and the detectivity of 3.9 x 10(12) Jones. No significant deterioration of such figures of merit of photodetectors is observed even at an environmental temperature of 250 degrees C and after absorption to 10 MGy in the dose of white X-ray. N-doped diamond shows excellent potential to be applicable to visible-light photodetectors for harsh-environmental implementations, which conventional visible-light photodetectors are not capable of so far.