High performance diagnostics for Time-Of-Flight and X ray measurements in laser produced plasmas, based on fast diamond detectors

The paper reports about the use of single-crystal Chemical Vapour Deposited (CVD) diamonds as radiation detectors in laser-matter interaction experiments on the ABC laser in ENEA-Frascati. The detectors have been designed and realized by University of Tor Vergata-Rome. The interdigital configuration and the new design of the bias-tee voltage supply units guarantee a fast time response. The detectors are sensitive to soft-X photons and to particles. A remarkable immunity to electromagnetic noise, associated with the laser-target interaction, makes them especially useful for the measurements of the time of flight of fast particles. A novel diamond assembly has been tested in plasmas generated by the ABC laser in the nanosecond regime at intensities I=1013÷14 W/cm2, where contributions from X rays, fast electrons and ions could be observed. © 2016 IOP Publishing Ltd and Sissa Medialab srl