Diamond detectors are increasingly employed in dosimetry. Their response has been investigated by means of Monte Carlo (MC) methods, but there is no consensus on what mass density ρ, mean excitation energy I and number of conduction electrons per atom n _ce to use in the simulations. The ambiguity occurs due to its seeming similarity with graphite (both are carbon allotropes). Except for the difference in ρ between crystalline graphite (2.265 g cm⁻³) and diamond (3.515 g cm⁻³), their dielectric properties are assumed to be identical. This is incorrect, and the two materials should be distinguished: (ρ = 2.265 g cm⁻³, I = 81.0 eV, n _ce = 1) for graphite and (ρ = 3.515 g cm⁻³, I = 88.5 eV, n _ce = 0) for diamond. Simulations done with the MC code penelope show that the energy imparted in diamond decreases by up to 1% with respect to ‘pseudo-diamond’ (ρ = 3.515 g cm⁻³, I = 81.0 eV, n _ce = 0) depending on the beam quality and cavity thickness. The energy imparted changed the most in cavities that are small compared with the range of electrons. The difference in the density-effect term relative to graphite was the smallest for diamond owing to an interplay effect that ρ, I and n _ce have on this term, in contrast to pseudo-diamond media when either ρ or I alone were adjusted. The study also presents a parameterized density-effect correction function for diamond that may be used by MC codes like EGSnrc. The estar program assumes that n _ce = 2 for all carbon-based materials, hence it delivers an erroneous density-effect correction term for graphite and diamond. Despite the small changes of the energy imparted in diamond simulated with two different I values and expected close-to-negligible deviation from the published small-field output correction data, it is important to pay attention to material properties and model the medium faithfully.

金刚石探测器越来越多地用于剂量测定。它们的响应已通过蒙特卡罗 (MC) 方法进行了研究，但对于在模拟中使用的质量密度ρ、平均激发能I和每个原子的传导电子数_没有达成共识。 由于其与石墨的相似性（两者都是碳同素异形体），因此出现了歧义。除了结晶石墨（2.265 g cm ^-3）和金刚石（ 3.515 g cm ^{-3 ）之间的}ρ差异外，它们的介电性能被假定为相同。这是不正确的，应区分两种材料： ( ρ = 2.265 g cm ^-3 ,对于石墨，I = 81.0 eV，n _{ce = 1)，对于金刚石，(} ρ = 3.515 g cm ^-3，I = 88.5 eV，n _ce = 0)。使用 MC 代码penelope进行的模拟表明，相对于“伪金刚石”（ρ = 3.515 g cm ^-3，I = 81.0 eV，n _ce= 0) 取决于光束质量和腔体厚度。在与电子范围相比较小的空腔中，所赋予的能量变化最大。与仅调整ρ或I时的伪金刚石介质相比，由于ρ、I和n _ce对此项的相互作用影响，金刚石的密度效应项相对于石墨的差异最小。该研究还提出了钻石的参数化密度效应校正函数，可用于 EGSnrc 等 MC 代码。estar程序假设n _ce = 2 对于所有碳基材料，因此它为石墨和金刚石提供了错误的密度效应校正项。尽管用两个不同的I值模拟的金刚石中赋予的能量发生了微小变化，并且预期与已发布的小场输出校正数据的偏差几乎可以忽略不计，但重要的是要注意材料特性并忠实地模拟介质。