Characterization of detector grade CdZnTe material from Redlen Technologies

CdZnTe (or CZT) crystals can be used in a variety of detector-type applications. This large band gap material shows great promise for use as a gamma radiation spectrometer. Historically, the performance of CZT has typically been adversely affected by point defects, structural and compositional heterogeneities within the crystals, such as twinning, pipes, grain boundaries (polycrystallinity) and secondary phases (SP). The synthesis of CZT material has improved greatly with the primary performance limitation being attributed to mainly SP. In this presentation, we describe the extensive characterization of detector grade material that has been treated with post growth annealing to remove the SPs. Some of the analytical methods used in this study included polarized, cross polarized and transmission IR imaging, I-V curves measurements, synchrotron X-ray topography and electron microscopy.