Al-doped ZnO contact to CdZnTe for x- and gamma-ray detector applications

Journal Article · Mon Jun 13 04:00:00 EDT 2016 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4953883· OSTI ID:22590787

Roy, U. N.; Camarda, G. S.; Cui, Y.; Gul, R.; Hossain, A.; Yang, G.; James, R. B. ^[1]; Mundle, R. M.; Pradhan, A. K. ^[2]

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1. Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973 (United States)
2. Department of Engineering, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, Virginia 23504 (United States)

The poor adhesion of common metals to CdZnTe (CZT)/CdTe surfaces has been a long-standing challenge for radiation detector applications. In this present work, we explored the use of an alternative electrode, viz., Al-doped ZnO (AZO) as a replacement to common metallic contacts. ZnO offers several advantages over the latter, such as having a higher hardness, a close match of the coefficients of thermal expansion for CZT and ZnO, and better adhesion to the surface of CZT due to the contact layer being an oxide. The AZO/CZT contact was investigated via high spatial-resolution X-ray response mapping for a planar detector at the micron level. The durability of the device was investigated by acquiring I–V measurements over an 18-month period, and good long-term stability was observed. We have demonstrated that the AZO/CZT/AZO virtual-Frisch-grid device performs fairly well, with comparable or better characteristics than that for the same detector fabricated with gold contacts.

• OSTI ID: 22590787
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 24 Vol. 108; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
CADMIUM TELLURIDES
CDZNTE SEMICONDUCTOR DETECTORS
DOPED MATERIALS
GAMMA DETECTION
GAMMA RADIATION
GOLD
THERMAL EXPANSION
WEAR RESISTANCE
ZINC OXIDES