New developments in CdTe and CdZnTe detectors for x and gamma-ray applications

There has been considerable resent progress in II-VI semiconductor material and in methods for improving performance of the associated radiation detectors. New high resistivity CdZnTe material, new contact technologies, new detector structures, new electronic correction methods have opened the field of nuclear and x-ray imaging for industrial and medical applications. The purpose of this paper is to review new developments in several of these fields. In addition, we will present some recent results at LETI concerning first the CdTe 2-D imaging system (20 x 30 mm(2) with 400 x 600 pixels) for dental radiology and second the CdZnTe fast pulse correction method applied to a 5 x 5 x 5 mm(3) CdZnTe detector (energy resolution = 5% for detection efficiency of 85% at 122 keV) for medical imaging.