Gamma Ray Spectrometers Fabricated from Modified Bridgman/Annealed CZT Crystal Material

Abstract

AbstractThe CZT boule was grown by a modified vertical Bridgman process using in-situ compounding, Cd over-pressure and a pyrolytic boron nitride crucible within a fused ampoule. During growth, the Cd vapor pressure was near 1 atmosphere. These growth conditions tend to give high purity, good stoichiometry, few precipitates, and dislocation densities in the low to mid-104 cm−2 range. The crystals, after polishing, were annealed in a nearly saturated Cd, Zn atmosphere to fill residual Cd-site vacancies and achieve high resistivity in the 1010 γ-cm range. Low temperature photoluminescence study shows very good crystalline quality and a very low concentration of deep level recombinations. Single crystal samples were diced into 1 cm squares for evaluation as gamma ray detectors. The best detector results (4.5% resolution at 60 keV) were achieved for a 2 hour anneal at 850°C.