Correlations between crystal defects and performance of CdZnTe detectors

Poor crystallinity remains a major problem affecting the availability and cost of CdZnTe (CZT) detectors. Point defects are responsible for small gradual charge loss and correlated with the electron clouds' drift times, which allows electronic correction of the output signals to achieve high spectral-resolution even with large-volume CZT detectors. In contrast, extended defects causes significant charge losses, which typically are uncorrelated, and, thus, result in much greater fluctuations of the output signals that cannot be corrected. Although extended defects do not affect all the interaction events, their fraction rapidly increases with the crystal's thickness and volume. In this paper, we summarize our recent results from testing CZT material and detectors that emphasize the particular roles of two types of extended defects, and their contributions to the device's overall performance.