Cl-Doped CdTe Crystal Growth for Medical Imaging Applications

CdTe:Cl doped single crystals were grown under conditions of tellurium excess by using an accelerated crucible rotation technique, modified vertical Bridgman (ACRT-MVB) method. Chlorine dopant levels were kept at 4.4 × 1019 at·cm−3, for all growths, while the Te excess level varied from 3.5 to 15% by weight. The relationship between the detector performance, Te inclusions, and resistivity was investigated in detail. Tellurium excess caused additional nucleation which decreased the average single crystal grain size. At the same time, the increasing Te excess level improved the electrical transport properties. In the three Cl-doped, and one In-doped CdTe crystals, detectors from Cl-doped CdTe grown under 15% Te excess showed better response to gammas and alphas, and high µτ for electrons (1.8 × 10−3 cm2/V), as well as for holes (5.1 × 10−4 cm2/V). The full-width half maximum for the Cl-doped CdTe were very large, as the peaks were broadened, especially at high bias. This could be due to hole trapping in a Cl-related A-center (VCd-ClTe)−, and in Cd- vacancies (VCd)−, and electron trapping in Te-antisites (TeCd)+.