Advanced Radiation Detector Development

Since our last progress report, the project at The University of Michigan has continued to concentrate on the development of gamma ray spectrometers fabricated from cadmium zinc telluride (CZT). This material is capable of providing energy resolution that is superior to that of scintillation detectors, while avoiding the necessity for cooling associated with germanium systems. In our past reports, we have described one approach (the coplanar grid electrode) that we have used to partially overcome some of the major limitations on charge collection that is found in samples of CZT. This approach largely eliminates the effect of hole motion in the formation of the output signal, and therefore leads to pulses that depend only on the motion of a single carrier (electrons). Since electrons move much more readily through CZT than do holes, much better energy resolution can be achieved under these conditions. In our past reports, we have described a 1 cm cube CZT spectrometer fitted with coplanar grids that achieved an energy resolution of 1.8% from the entire volume of the crystal. This still represents, to our knowledge, the best energy resolution ever demonstrated in a CZT detector of this size