Application of CdTe and CZT detectors in ultra fast electron beam X-ray tomography

Ultra fast electron beam tomography has been developed as a novel tool for visualization of fast processes. As in medical electron beam computed tomography (CT) this technique is based on the generation of images from radiographs produced with a rapidly scanned electron beam. Scanning frequencies of few thousand frames per second require X-ray detectors which can be read out at rates up to one megahertz. Such detectors must be highly efficient regarding conversion efficiency and because of the high photon flux they need to be operated in current mode. In a preliminary study we investigated the performance of different commercial CZT and CdTe room-temperature semiconductor detectors.