Passivation effect on large volume CdZnTe crystals

Several cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) crystals were fabricated into radiation detectors using methods that included slicing, dicing, lapping, polishing, and chemical etching. A wet passivation with sodium hy-pochlorite (NaOCl) was then carried out on the Br-etched detectors. The Te-rich layer on the CZT surface was successfully compensated to the Te oxide layer, which was analyzed with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy data of both a Br-etched crystal and a passivated CZT crystals. We confirmed that passiv-ation with NaOCl improved the transport property by analyzing the mobility-lifetime product and sur-face recombination velocity. The electrical and spectroscopic properties of large volume detectors were compared before and after passivation, and then the detectors were observed for a month. Both bar and quasi-hemispherical detectors show an enhancement in performance after passivation. Thus, we could identify the effect of NaOCl passivation on large volume CZT detectors.(c) 2022 Korean Nuclear Society, Published by Elsevier Korea LLC. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

This study fabricated radiation detectors using CZT crystals and carried out wet passivation with NaOCl on the Br-etched detectors. It was found that passivation improved the transport property and enhanced the performance of the detectors.