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Modeling the Geometrical Effects of Te Precipitates on Electron Transport in CdZnTe

Journal Article · · Nuclear Instruments and Methods A

Large Te inclusions, >100 {mu}m, or aggregations of Te precipitates are known to degrade the performance of CdZnTe (CZT) nuclear-radiation detectors. At the same time, it is widely accepted that randomly distributed small Te precipitates are not harmful. Previous attempts to study Te precipitates, conducted with wide X-ray or alpha-particle beams, were unable to reveal their critical role because the 300-400 {mu}m diameter excitation probes used in the experiments were much larger than the 10-20 {mu}m diameter Te precipitates. In contrast, our recent measurements carried out with high-spatial resolution, <10 {mu}m, mapping techniques provided clear evidence that even small-size precipitates adversely affect the energy resolution and detection efficiency of CZT devices. In our model, Te precipitates were treated as non-transparent spherical areas randomly distributed inside a CZT crystal. As an electron cloud drifts toward an anode and grows due to diffusion, the Te precipitates trap a fraction of the total charge corresponding to the footprints of the different precipitates along the path of the electron cloud projection. Thus, the charge loss due to Te precipitates is mainly modeled as a geometrical effect. Here, we describe the application of this simple approach to model the charge loss due to Te precipitates and describe how it affects the detector's performance for realistic devices. We compare the predicted results with the experimental data.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) National Synchrotron Light Source
Sponsoring Organization:
Doe - Office Of Science
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-98CH10886
OSTI ID:
930055
Report Number(s):
BNL--80682-2008-JA
Journal Information:
Nuclear Instruments and Methods A, Journal Name: Nuclear Instruments and Methods A Vol. 579
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English