Novel Electrodes and Engineered Interfaces for Halide-Semiconductor Radiation Detectors

A new class of inorganic halide semiconductors are emerging as high-efficiency low-cost candidates for spectroscopic radiation detection. We report on solving one of the major challenges of these halide radiation detectors. At room temperature halide semiconductor detectors polarize under applied electric field, which not only degrades the charge collection efficiency of the detectors, but also promotes chemical reaction of the metal electrodes with the halide ions. This increases the metal-semiconductor interface noise and early failure of the spectroscopic detection capabilities of the device. We report on a solution to this challenge by application of novel electrodes on Thallium Bromide (TlBr) radiation detectors with virtually defect-free electrode-semiconductor interfaces, showing low noise and high detection stability for an extended period of time under accelerated ageing conditions. A number of TlBr detectors fabricated by this technique have demonstrated continuous stable detection performance (e.g. +/- 1% change in 662 keV gamma channel) for more than 4000 hours at room temperature. This report also shows continuously recorded Cs-137 gamma radiation response of a unidirectionally-biased pixelated TlBr detector over more than 2 months (a total of 2880 data sets), which exhibit excellent stability. The developed approach has resulted in unprecedented low-noise stable performance of halide semiconductor detectors at room temperature, overcoming one of the major obstacles to the full consideration of TlBr (and other halide semiconductors) as a potentially low-cost replacement for Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT).