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

Abstract

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 includingmore » 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.« less

Authors:

Serafini, John  ^[1];

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Hossain, A. ^[2]; James, R. B. ^[3]; Trivedi, S. B. ^[4]; Sobolewski, Roman ^[5]

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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)

Publication Date:

Tue Feb 19 00:00:00 EST 2019

Research Org.:

Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL); Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE

OSTI Identifier:

1513684

Report Number(s):

SRNL-STI-2018-00579
Journal ID: ISSN 0268-1242

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC09-08SR22470

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Semiconductor Science and Technology

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 34; Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 0268-1242

Publisher:

IOP Publishing

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

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