Measurement of the electrical properties of a polycrystalline cadmium telluride for direct conversion flat panel x-ray detector

Abstract

Cadmium telluride (CdTe) is one of the best candidate direct conversion material for medical X-ray application because it satisfies the requirements of direct conversion x-ray material such as high atomic absorption, density, bandgap energy, work fuction, and resistivity. With such properties, single crystal CdTe exhibits high quantum efficiency and charge collection efficiency. However, for the development of low-cost large area detector, the study of the improvement of polycrystalline CdTe property is desirable. In this study, in order to improve the properties of polycrystalline CdTe, we produced polycrystalline CdTe with different kinds of raw materials, high purity Cd and Te powder compounds and bulk CdTe compound synthesized from single crystal CdTe. The electric properties including resistivity, x-ray sensitivity, and charge transport properties were investigated. As a result, polycrystalline CdTe exhibited simular level of resistivity and x-ray sensitivity to single crystal CdTe. The carrier transport properties of polycrystalline CdTe showed poorer properties than those of single crystal CdTe due to significant charge trapping. However, the polycrystalline CdTe fabricated with bulk CdTe compound synthesized from single crystal CdTe showed better charge transport properties than the polycrystalline CdTe fabricated with CdTe powder compounds. This is suitable for diagnostic x-ray detectors, especially for digital fluoroscopy.