Abstract
This study was carried out to examine the potential of antimony tri-iodide (SbI3) as a material for radiation detectors that operate at room temperature. SbI3 is a compound semiconductor with an AsI3-type crystal structure, high atomic number (Sb: 51, I: 53), high density (4.92 g/cm3), and a wide band-gap energy (2.2 eV). In addition, crystalline SbI3 is easy to grow by conventional crystal growth techniques from melting phase because the material exhibits a low melting point (171°C) and undergoes no phase transition in the range of its solid phase. In this study, SbI3 crystals were grown by the Bridgman method after synthesis of SbI3 from 99.9999% pure Sb and 99.999% pure I2. The grown crystals consisted of several large grains with red color and were confirmed to be single-phase crystals by X-ray diffraction analysis. SbI3 detectors with a simple planar structure were fabricated using the cleavage plates of the grown crystals, and the pulse-height spectra were recorded at room temperature using an 241Am alpha-particle (5.48 MeV) source. The detector showed response to the alpha-particle radiation.
Highlights
Numerous compound semiconductors have been actively investigated for use in radiation detectors [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
SbI3 crystals were grown by the Bridgman method after synthesis of SbI3 from 99.9999%
SbI3 crystals were grown by the Bridgman method, and the performance of SbI3 detectors was evaluated on the basis of alpha-particle energy spectra recorded at room temperature
Summary
Numerous compound semiconductors have been actively investigated for use in radiation detectors [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. High detection efficiency for gamma-rays as well as low-noise operation at room temperature and high charge collection efficiency are important characteristics for radiation detectors with high spectroscopic performance. Antimony tri-iodide (SbI3) is a compound semiconductor with an AsI3-type crystal structure; it has been reported to be a potential semiconductor material for radiation detectors [1]. The physical properties of SbI3 suggest that it can be used in radiation detectors with high detection efficiency and low-noise operation at room temperature without any cooling. The aforementioned attractive properties of SbI3 suggest that SbI3 detectors can be fabricated at low cost compared with CdTe and CdZnTe detectors. Gamma-ray energy resolution obtained from these layered materials was poor than CdTe and CdZnTe due to low charge transport properties. The objective of this work was to evaluate the potential of SbI3 as a radiation detector
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