R2B  CdZnT2 and RTSD Award

Tuesday, Nov. 3  10:30-12:00  California

Session Chair:  Michael Fiederle, Freiburger Materialforschungszentrum, Germany

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(10:30) R2B-1, RTSD Scientist Award Presentation

R. B. James1, M. Fiederle2

1Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York, USA
2University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

The RTSD Scientist Award for the 22nd International Conference on Room-Temperature Semiconductor Radiation Detectors will be presented.

(10:45) R2B-2, invited, View from the Past

L. A. Franks

N/A, Keystone, Albuquerque NM, US

The development of room- temperature semiconductor spectrometers will be discussed from their origins to the present. Requirements for reaching performance goals will be reviewed as well as performance- limiting characteristics. Problems encountered in their development will be discussed as well as the difficulties their resolution. The impact of novel detector designs and their affect on future detector development will be discussed.

(11:15) R2B-3, Comparison Between Two Independent Evaluation Methods for Electric Field Profile and Transport Parameters in Solid-State CZT Photodetectors

A. Santi1, G. Piacentini1, M. Zanichelli1,2, M. Bettelli3, A. Zappettini3, M. Pavesi1,3

1Dept. of Physics and Earth Sciences, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
2due2lab srl, Parma, Italy
3IMEM-CNR, Parma, Italy

Electric field profile and transport parameters from independent measurements on a set of planar CdZnTe detectors were compared. The mobility and lifetime, for both electrons and holes, together with the electric field profile were deduced from current transient profiles induced by laser pulses at different applied voltages. The method is founded on a procedure of minimization built up from the R-S theorem and some physical constraints. This last procedure was tested on a set of planar detectors with different thicknesses. One of them is commercial, while the other three were grown at IMEM-CNR in Parma, Italy. The mobility-lifetime product was also evaluated by fitting the charge collection efficiency curves under a suitable electric field profile model. Comparison between results from both the techniques are in good agreement and confirm the high spectroscopic features of investigated materials.

(11:30) R2B-4, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Equipped with Spectroscopic CdZnTe Detector for Detection and Identification of Radiological and Nuclear Material

S. Caselli1, J. Aleotti1, G. Micconi1, G. Benassi2, N. Zambelli2, D. Calestani3, A. Zappettini3

1Dept. Ingegneria dell'Informazione, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
2due2lab srl, Parma, Italy
3IMEM-CNR, Parma, Italy

In the case of a nuclear accident or a terrorist attack involving nuclear material the examination of the contaminated area by hand may not be possible due to the presence of the hazardous material itself. In these cases, the use of a remotely-controlled vehicle for the detection and identification of nuclear or radiological material would be highly recommended. With this in mind, we have developed an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) equipped with a CdZnTe detectors for the detection and identification of Radiological and Nuclear Material. CdZnTe detectors operate at room temperature, are light, and require low operating power, thus they can be easily integrated on UAV. A dedicate control unit developed in this project manages the human-robot interaction enabling a fast individuation of the nuclear material. Compact, low-noise electronics has been realized to amplify and process detector output signals. The spectroscopic properties of the high quality CdZnTe detector permits the identification of the nuclear source. The operation of the UAV equipped with the CZT detectors has been simulated, tested in the lab with standard nuclear sources, and also tested outdoor in simulated operation condition making use of nuclear sources routinely used for industrial inspection.