Development of Diamond Tracking Detectors for High Luminosity Experiments at the LHC

\\ \\% RD42 \\ \\Diamond, grown in a chemical vapour deposition process, can be used as a particle detector. The RD42 collaboration investigates its application in experiments at the Large Hadron Collider for particle tracking very close to the interaction region. Diamond is known to be radiation hard, in particular to photons and electrons up to at least 100 MRad. Irradiations with pions, protons and neutrons at room temperature show that diamond can resist higher fluences than silicon devices. An irradiation with 24 GeV/c protons on diamond samples shows no degradation up to fluences of 1 x 10$^{15} \emph{p}$/cm$^{2}$ and a decrease in signal of only 40\% at 5 x 10$^{15} \emph{p}$/cm$^{2}$.\\ \\The signal response to a minimum ionizing particle in the best diamond samples is 9000 electon-hole-pairs which corresponds to a charge collection distance of 250 $\mu$m.\\ \\Diamond strip detectors with sizes from 1 x 1 cm$^{2}$ to 2 x 4 cm$^{2}$ are routinely tested in particle beams using low noise VA readout electronics having 2$\mu$s signal peaking time. Tests of diamond strip detectors using fast LHC type readout electronics (SCT128 / DMILL, 25 ns signal peaking time) are in progress. A most probable signal-to-noise ratio of 7-to-1 was obtained recently with fast readout electronics.\\ \\Bump bonded diamond pixel detectors with geometries required for the ALTAS and CMS pixel readout chips are in preparation in collaboration with groups from both experiments. Figure~1 shows the pixel metallization pattern of a diamond pixel detector designed for an ATLAS readout chip. Good results were obtained in the beam. Figure 2 shows the spatial resolution of 15$\mu$m in the direction of the small pixel pitch obtained with this detector. \\ \\ \\ \\