Chromium compensated gallium arsenide detectors for X-ray and γ-ray spectroscopic imaging

• Published in: Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment Vol. 752; pp. 6 - 14
• Main Authors: Veale, M.C., Bell, S.J., Duarte, D.D., French, M.J., Schneider, A., Seller, P., Wilson, M.D., Lozinskaya, A.D., Novikov, V.A., Tolbanov, O.P., Tyazhev, A., Zarubin, A.N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 11-07-2014
• Subjects: Chromium; Compensation; Detectors; Electrical resistivity; Gallium arsenide; Gallium arsenides; Imaging; Pixel detector; Pixels; Radiation; Spectroscopy; X-ray detector; Pixel detector; X-ray detector; Gallium arsenide; Imaging; Compensation; Radiation
• ISSN: 0168-9002; 1872-9576
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2014.03.033

Semi-insulating GaAs material of 500μm thickness grown using the Liquid Encapsulated Czochralski (LEC) method has been compensated with chromium to produce high resistivity single crystals suitable for spectroscopic imaging applications. Results are presented for the performance of three small pixel detectors each with 80×80 pixels on a 250μm pitch, fabricated with metal contacts and bonded to a spectroscopic imaging ASIC. Current–voltage measurements demonstrated a material resistivity of 2.5×109Ωcm at room temperature. At an optimised bias voltage, the average energy resolution at 60keV (FWHM) was in the range 2.8–3.3keV per pixel. An analysis of the voltage dependent X-ray spectroscopy suggests that the electron mobility lifetime (μτe) for each detector is in the range 2.1–4.5×10−5cm2V−1. The spectroscopic imaging capability of the detectors is also demonstrated in X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements.