Chemically vapor deposited diamond films as dosimetric material for potential clinical applications

Thermally stimulated luminescence (TL), cathodoluminescence (CL) and Raman spectroscopy of CVD diamond films grown on silicon substrates have been studied in order to obtain information on defects created during the growth, which induce the levels within the gap. TL between 300 K and 700 K, and CL from 200 nm to 1200 nm have been teasured. The glow curves show a peak located around 610 K with different intensities, depending on the sample thickness, associated with a trap of energy, equal to 0.83 eV and with attempt-to-escape-time of the order of 108 s^-1. Broad CL bands observed at 428±1 nm (2.90 ±0.01 eV) and 500±1 nm (2.47±0.004 eV) are attributed to closely spaced and widely separated donor-acceptor (D-A) pairs, respectively. The TL and CL results were correlated with diamond quality estimated from Raman spectroscopy measurements.