Transient lateral photovoltaic effect in synthetic single crystal diamond

A transient lateral photovoltaic effect (LPE) is reported for a metal-semiconductor structure of synthetic single crystal diamond (SCD). A SCD Schottky photodiode was specifically designed to measure a LPE under collimated irradiation from a tunable pulsed laser. A transient lateral photovoltage parallel to the Schottky junction was indeed detected. LPE on the p-type doped SCD side showed a non-linearity of 2% and a fast response time, with a rise time of 2 ls and a decay time of 12 ls. The position sensitivity (up to 30 mV/mm at a laser wavelength of 220 nm and a pulse energy density of 2.9 lJ/mm2) was measured as a function of laser wavelength, and an ultraviolet (UV)-tovisible contrast ratio of about four orders of magnitude with a sharp cutoff at 225 nm was observed. Our results demonstrate that a large LPE at UV wavelengths is achievable in synthetic single crystal diamond, potentially opening opportunities for the study and application of LPE in diamond and for the fabrication of high performance visible blind UV position sensitive detectors with high sensitivity and microsecond scale response time.