Secondary electron emission from boron-doped diamond under ion impact: Applications in single-ion detection

The secondary electron emission from a 2 μm thick boron-doped diamond film under ion (4.6–7.7 MeV He+)impact is reported. The yield under ions impact is found to be remarkably high, stable over a period of many months, and independent of which side of the film (i.e., growth or substrate side) is exposed to the ion flux. By taking advantage of the high secondary-electron yield, the passage of each ion through the film could be detected with an efficiency of close to 100%, which to the best of our knowledge is the highest efficiency recorded to date for any thin-film window. This finding has an immediate application in single-ion irradiation systems where a thin vacuum window is required to allow extraction of an ion beam from the vacuum into air and at the same time offer 100% efficiency for the detection of the passage of the ion through the window.