Corrections for Fluorescence and Charge-Sharing Effects to Bremsstrahlung Spectra for a Hyperspectral Pixelated CZT X-Ray Detector

Abstract

A Monte-Carlo model was developed to simulate the response of a pixelated hyperspectral CZT X-ray detector. The first part of the simulation was carried out using Geant4 to obtain a list of energy depositions inside the CZT crystal. The second part of the simulation used charge transport equations to calculate the size of the electron charge cloud, as it drifts under the influence of an electric field to be read out. Experimentally acquired data from an Am-241 source with the HEXITEC detector were compared to simulated data, and good agreement was found. The model was used to investigate the energy dependence of fluorescence and charge sharing effects. The probability of producing an escaped fluorescence photon was quantified as a function of primary photon energy. As expected, at primary photon energies just above the K-edge of Cd, there was a greater chance of producing an escaped fluorescence photon, and this probability decreased as the primary photon energy increased. The probability of an event being shared across multiple pixels as a function of primary photon energy was quantified. It was found that as the primary photon energy was increased, there was a greater chance of producing an event shared across multiple pixels. The detector response to a Bremsstrahlung spectrum was simulated. Using previous results, fluorescence and charge sharing effects were corrected for, giving a corrected spectrum in good agreement with the input spectrum.