A comparative theoretical study was made of the damage which was produced by protons and pions in the energy range of 50MeV to 50GeV. The concentration of primary defects which was introduced by hadron irradiation was used to gauge material degradation. The concentrations of primary defects exhibited very different behaviours for protons and pions. The proton degradation was high at low energies, and was greater than that due to pions over the entire energy range which was investigated; apart from a resonance region, within which a marked maximum of the degradation occurred for pions. Diamond was proved theoretically to be an order of magnitude more resistant to proton and pion bombardment than was Si.

Comparative Energy Dependence of Proton and Pion Degradation in Diamond. I.Lazanu, S.Lazanu: Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research A, 1999, 432[2-3], 374-8