Development of Three-Dimensional Position-Sensitive Room Temperature Semiconductor Gamma-Ray Spectrometers
Conference
·
OSTI ID:786120
Semiconductor detectors can provide better spectroscopic performance than scintillation or gas-filled detectors because of the small ionization energy required to generate each electron-hole pair. Indeed, cryogenically cooled high-purity germanium detectors have played the dominant role whenever the best gamma-ray spectroscopy is required. A decades-long search for other semiconductor detectors that could provide higher stopping power and could operate at room temperature has been ongoing. Wide-bandgap semiconductors, such as CdTe, CdZnTe, and HgI{sub 2}, have captured the most attention. However, the use of these semiconductors in detectors has been hindered primarily by problems of charge trapping and material nonuniformity. Introduced in 1994, single-polarity charge sensing on semiconductor detectors has shown great promise in avoiding the hole-trapping problem, and the newly demonstrated three-dimensional position-sensing technique can significantly mitigate the degradation of energy resolution due to nonuniformity of detector material. In addition, three-dimensional position sensitivity will provide unique imaging capabilities of these gamma-ray spectrometers. These devices are of interest for nuclear nonproliferation, medical imaging, gamma-ray astronomy, and high-energy physics applications. This paper describes the three-dimensional position-sensing method and reports our latest results using second-generation three-dimensional position-sensitive semiconductor spectrometers.
- Research Organization:
- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- none (US)
- OSTI ID:
- 786120
- Report Number(s):
- none; ISSN 0003-018X; CODEN TANSAO; ISSN 0003-018X; CODEN TANSAO
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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