Defects introduced in cadmium telluride by γ irradiation

The properties peculiar to high resistivity CdTe:Cl are of great interest because of its application as a radiation detector. The compensation process responsible for the materials semi-insulating character implies the presence in the lattice of impurities and defects which have not yet been thoroughly characterized. The use of CdTe:Cl as a detector exposes the material to high fluxes of ionizing radiation which alter the crystal stoichiometry and affect the resulting electrical and optical properties, but few and scattered experimental data are available about radiation effects on this compound. In this work we have carried out an extensive investigation of the effects of gamma irradiation on CdTe:Cl by photoinduced current transient spectroscopy analyses. We have identified the deep levels with activation energies up to midgap and we have followed their evolution with increasing irradiation doses up to 50 kGy, the dose which totally degrades the material detecting properties. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.