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Title: Time-resolved, nonequilibrium carrier and coherent acoustic phonon dynamics in (Cd, Mg)Te single crystals for radiation detectors

Journal Article · · Semiconductor Science and Technology
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5]
  1. Univ. of Rochester, Rochester, NY (United States); Rochester Inst. of Technology, Rochester, NY (United States)
  2. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
  3. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Savannah River National Lab, Aiken, SC (United States)
  4. Brimrose Technology Corp., Sparks, MD (United States)
  5. Univ. of Rochester, Rochester, NY (United States); Inst. of Electron Technology, Warszawa (Poland)
+ Show Author Affiliations

We present time-resolved nonequilibrium carrier and coherent acoustic phonon dynamics in (Cd, Mg)Te single crystals intended for detection of high-energy x-ray photons. Our (Cd, Mg)Te crystals were grown using a vertical Bridgman method and during the process were doped either with In (a shallow dopant) or Ge (a deep impurity). Next they were cut into platelets and, subsequently, tested as as-grown specimens, or, before testing, long-term annealed in a temperature range of 750 °C–800 °C to improve their crystalline properties. All samples exhibited high resistivities of 109–1010 Ω cm, as required for x-ray detection applications. We have performed femtosecond optical spectroscopy, pump-probe measurements on all samples in both one-color (high-intensity 800 nm pump and low-intensity 800 nm probe) and two-color (high-intensity 400 nm pump and low-intensity 800 nm probe) configurations, and analyzed the results using our carrier dynamics rate-equation model. The model allowed us to perform a comprehensive, time-resolved analysis of relaxation dynamics of photoexcited carriers and investigate the role of carrier traps present in all tested samples. Two-color measurements also allowed us to observe and analyze the propagation of acoustic coherent phonons excited by the high-energy pump pulse. We observed that the dependence of phonon mode frequency, after including a correction of the experimentally measured crystal index of refraction dependence on the probe wavelength, was dispersionless and led to the value for the sound velocity of 3367 m s–1, which is in excellent agreement with the literature data. The intrinsic lifetime of coherent phonons in (Cd, Mg)Te was estimated to be of the order of 10 ns. Lastly, we conclude that among our tested samples, the In-doped, annealed (Cd, Mg)Te crystal exhibits the best characteristics for radiation detection applications.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Savannah River National Lab (SRNL), Aiken, SC (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC09-08SR22470
OSTI ID:
1513684
Report Number(s):
SRNL-STI--2018-00579
Journal Information:
Semiconductor Science and Technology, Journal Name: Semiconductor Science and Technology Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 34; ISSN 0268-1242
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
acoustic and optical phonons
nonequilibrium carrier dynamics
pump probe spectroscopy
radiation detector
trap states
ultrafast