Digital pulse-shape processing for CdTe detectors

CdTe detectors suffer from low photo-peak efficiency and poor energy resolution. These problems are due to the drift properties of charge carriers in CdTe where particularly the holes have small mobility and trapping time. This is reflected in the amplitude and the shape of the detector output. To improve this situation a digital method is introduced where a sampling ADC is used to make a detailed measurement of the time evolution of the pulse. The measured pulse shape is fitted with a model. For the detector under study a model taking hole trapping into account significantly improves the photo-peak efficiency. The description of the hole component is, however, not fully satisfactory since for pulses with a large hole contribution a broadening of the full-energy peak occurs. Allowing for inhomogeneities in the detector material within the model partially remedies this deficiency.