Thallous chalcogenide (Tl 6I 4Se) for radiation detection at X-ray and γ-ray energies

Zhifu Liu, John A. Peters, Bruce W. Wessels*, Simon Johnsen, Mercouri G. Kanatzidis

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

The optical and charge transport properties of the thallous chalcogenide compound Tl 6I 4Se were characterized. The semiconductor crystals are grown by the modified Bridgman method. We have measured the refractive index, and absorption coefficient of the compound ranging from 300 to 1500 nm by analysis of the UVvisnear IR transmission and reflection spectra. The band gap is 1.8 eV. For the evaluation of detector performance, the mobility-lifetime products for both the electron and hole carriers were measured. Tl 6I 4Se has mobility-lifetime products of 7.1×10 -3 and 5.9×10 -4 cm 2+/V for electron and hole carriers, respectively, which are comparable to those of Cd 0.9Zn 0.1Te. The γ-ray spectrum for a Tl 6I 4Se detector was measured. Its response to the 122 keV of 57Co source is comparable to that of Cd 0.9Zn 0.1Te.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)333-335
Number of pages3
JournalNuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Volume659
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 11 2011

Funding

SJ would like to acknowledge funding from the Danish Research Council for Nature and Universe. This work is supported by the Department of Homeland Security with Grant 2010-DN-077-ARI042-02 . The device fabrication was performed in the microfabrication facility of the Materials Research Center at Northwestern University supported by the NSF under Grant DMR-0076097 . We would like to thank Dr. A. Schmidt of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, and Prof. C. Zang for technical support.

Keywords

  • Photoconductivity
  • Tl-chalcogenide
  • Wide gap semiconductor
  • γ-ray detector

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics
  • Instrumentation

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