Comparison of Silicon, Germanium, Gallium Nitride, and Diamond for using as a detector material in experimental high energy physics

Semiconductor detectors with Silicon as the sensor material are widely used in High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments for high precision tracking and determination of primary and secondary vertices with good spatial resolution. They are close to the interaction point, so they are prone radiation damage due to the high fluence of produced particles. The choice of semiconductor material is based on the signal to noise ratio, multiple scattering, pulse timing and radiation hardness. In this paper, we compare the suitability of Silicon (Si), Germanium (Ge), Gallium Nitride (GaN), and Diamond for high energy and high luminosity experiments. In addition, we also show the results on the growth of diamond films and their characterizations.