A study of temperature dependence of some relevant parameters performed on a set of CdTe detectors

Cadmium telluride is a semiconductor material which is now widely used in both spectroscopic and imaging applications. Among its properties, the most advantageous is its ability to operate at room-temperature, so as to avoid the need of bulk cooling devices. Nevertheless, a quantitative evaluation of the temperature dependence of the detectors response is needed in order to establish a temperature range for safe operations. In this paper, some parameters are evaluated at temperatures ranging from -35/spl deg/C up to 40/spl deg/C with an energy source of 511 keV for a set of three spectroscopy grade CdTe detectors. The data obtained seem to indicate a significant temperature independence below 0/spl deg/C, while at temperatures over 10/spl deg/C spectra degradations occur.<
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