Temperature effects on CdZnTe detector performance

CdZnTe detectors are potential replacements for traditional room temperature detectors such as NaI in many applications. One particularly suitable application could be their use in portable field instruments for isotopic identification. To fully exploit them for this purpose, however, their behavior in conditions likely to be encountered in the field must be fully characterized and understood. At Los Alamos National Laboratory, we are studying one of these conditions, the effect of temperature extremes, on CdZnTe detectors. In the case of a 1×1×1 cm³ detector with a coplanar anode structure, we have found temporary degraded performance at elevated temperatures near 50°C and a failure mode at temperatures below -20°C. This paper discusses the performance of two CdZnTe crystals when exposed to temperature extremes