We have developed the detached Bridgman process for growth of CdZnTe crystals. Detachment of the solidification
interface from the growth ampoule results in a low density of dislocations in the grown material and large single crystal
grains. The detached Bridgman process also provides for direct control of the melt composition close to the growth front,
allowing for accurate control of both the density of the Te/Cd precipitates as well as the majority carrier concentration in
the grown material. The influence of melt-composition control and compensation by shallow and deep donors on
detector performance is presented.
We present our new results from testing 15-mm-long virtual Frisch-grid CdZnTe detectors with a common-cathode
readout for correcting pulse-height distortions. The array employs parallelepiped-shaped CdZnTe (CZT) detectors of a
large geometrical aspect ratio, with two planar contacts on the top and bottom surfaces (anode and cathode) and an
additional shielding electrode on the crystal's sides to create the virtual Frisch-grid effect. We optimized the geometry of
the device and improved its spectral response. We found that reducing to 5 mm the length of the shielding electrode
placed next to the anode had no adverse effects on the device's performance. At the same time, this allowed corrections
for electron loss by reading the cathode signals to obtain depth information.
Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) has attracted increasing interest with its promising potential as a room-temperature
nuclear-radiation-detector material. However, different defects in CZT crystals, especially Te inclusions and
dislocations, can degrade the performance of CZT detectors. Post-growth annealing is a good approach potentially to
eliminate the deleterious influence of these defects. At Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), we built up different
facilities for investigating post-growth annealing of CZT. Here, we report our latest experimental results. Cd-vapor
annealing reduces the density of Te inclusions, while large temperature gradient promotes the migration of small-size Te
inclusions. Simultaneously, the annealing lowers the density of dislocations. However, only-Cd-vapor annealing
decreases the resistivity, possibly reflecting the introduction of extra Cd in the lattice. Subsequent Te-vapor annealing is
needed to ensure the recovery of the resistivity after removing the Te inclusions.
Dark currents, including those in the surface and bulk, are the leading source of electronic noise in X-ray and gamma
detectors, and are responsible for degrading a detector's energy resolution. The detector material itself determines the
bulk leakage current; however, the surface leakage current is controllable by depositing appropriate passivation layers. In
previous research, we demonstrated the effectiveness of surface passivation in CZT (CdZnTe) and CMT (CdMnTe)
materials using ammonium sulfide and ammonium fluoride. In this research, we measured the effect of such passivation
on the surface states of these materials, and on the performances of detectors made from them.
We characterized samples cut from different locations in as-grown CdZnTe (CZT) ingots, using Automated Infrared (IR)
Transmission Microscopy and White Beam X-ray Diffraction Topography (WBXDT), to locate and identify the extended
defects in them. Our goal was to define the distribution of these defects throughout the entire ingot and their effects on
detectors' performance as revealed by the pulse-height spectrum. We found the highest- and the lowest- concentration of
Te inclusions, respectively, in the head and middle part of the ingot, which could serve as guidance in selecting samples.
Crystals with high concentration of Te inclusions showed high leakage current and poor performance, because the
accumulated charge loss around trapping centers associated with Te inclusions distorts the internal electric field, affects
the carrier transport properties inside the crystal, and finally degrades the detector's performance. In addition, other
extended defects revealed by the WBXDT measurements severely reduced the detector's performance, since they trap
large numbers of electrons, leading to a low signal for the pulse-height spectrum, or none whatsoever. Finally, we fully
correlated the detector's performance with our information on the extended defects gained from both the IR- and the
WBXDT-measurements.
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