Both material quality and detector performance have been steadily improving over the past few years for the leading room temperature radiation detector material cadmium-zinc-telluride (CdZnTe). However, although tremendous progress being made, CdZnTe still suffers from high concentrations of performance-limiting defects, such as Te inclusions, networks of sub-grain boundaries and compositional inhomogeneity due to the higher segregation coefficient of Zn. Adding as low as 2% (atomic) Se into CdZnTe matrix was found to successfully mitigate many performance-limiting defects and provide improved compositional homogeneity. Here we report record-high performance of Virtual Frisch Grid (VFG) detector fabricated from as-grown Cd 0.9 Zn 0.1 Te 0.98 Se 0.02 ingot grown by the Traveling Heater Method (THM). Benefiting from superior material quality, we achieved superb energy resolution of 0.77% at 662 keV (as-measured without charge-loss correction algorithms) registered at room temperature. The absence of residual thermal stress in the detector was revealed from white beam X-ray topographic images, which was also confirmed by Infra-Red (IR) transmission imaging under cross polarizers. Furthermore, neither sub-grain boundaries nor their networks were observed from the X-ray topographic image. However, large concentrations of extrinsic impurities were revealed in as-grown materials, suggesting a high likelihood for further reduction in the energy resolution after improved purification of the starting material.
Roy, Utpal N., et al. "Impact of selenium addition to the cadmium-zinc-telluride matrix for producing high energy resolution X-and gamma-ray detectors." Scientific Reports, vol. 11, no. 1, May. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-89795-z
Roy, Utpal N., Camarda, Giuseppe S., Cui, Yonggang, Yang, Ge, & James, Ralph B. (2021). Impact of selenium addition to the cadmium-zinc-telluride matrix for producing high energy resolution X-and gamma-ray detectors. Scientific Reports, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-89795-z
Roy, Utpal N., Camarda, Giuseppe S., Cui, Yonggang, et al., "Impact of selenium addition to the cadmium-zinc-telluride matrix for producing high energy resolution X-and gamma-ray detectors," Scientific Reports 11, no. 1 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-89795-z
@article{osti_1782955,
author = {Roy, Utpal N. and Camarda, Giuseppe S. and Cui, Yonggang and Yang, Ge and James, Ralph B.},
title = {Impact of selenium addition to the cadmium-zinc-telluride matrix for producing high energy resolution X-and gamma-ray detectors},
annote = {Abstract Both material quality and detector performance have been steadily improving over the past few years for the leading room temperature radiation detector material cadmium-zinc-telluride (CdZnTe). However, although tremendous progress being made, CdZnTe still suffers from high concentrations of performance-limiting defects, such as Te inclusions, networks of sub-grain boundaries and compositional inhomogeneity due to the higher segregation coefficient of Zn. Adding as low as 2% (atomic) Se into CdZnTe matrix was found to successfully mitigate many performance-limiting defects and provide improved compositional homogeneity. Here we report record-high performance of Virtual Frisch Grid (VFG) detector fabricated from as-grown Cd 0.9 Zn 0.1 Te 0.98 Se 0.02 ingot grown by the Traveling Heater Method (THM). Benefiting from superior material quality, we achieved superb energy resolution of 0.77% at 662 keV (as-measured without charge-loss correction algorithms) registered at room temperature. The absence of residual thermal stress in the detector was revealed from white beam X-ray topographic images, which was also confirmed by Infra-Red (IR) transmission imaging under cross polarizers. Furthermore, neither sub-grain boundaries nor their networks were observed from the X-ray topographic image. However, large concentrations of extrinsic impurities were revealed in as-grown materials, suggesting a high likelihood for further reduction in the energy resolution after improved purification of the starting material. },
doi = {10.1038/s41598-021-89795-z},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1782955},
journal = {Scientific Reports},
issn = {ISSN 2045-2322},
number = {1},
volume = {11},
place = {United Kingdom},
publisher = {Nature Publishing Group},
year = {2021},
month = {05}}
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Savannah River National Lab (SRNL), Aiken, SC (United States); Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation
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