Thermal Annealing of CdMnTe Material Being Developed for Nuclear Radiation Detection Applications

Cadmium manganese telluride (CdMnTe) is one of the semiconductor materials with potential applications at room-temperature for nuclear and radiological detection. CdMnTe crystals grown by Bridgman technique are prone to tellurium inclusions and related defects that limit their performance as X-rays and gamma-rays detectors. The major reason for this is that they are grown in a tellurium-rich environment. These defects could trap charges that are generated by X-rays and gamma rays thereby degrading the charge transport properties of the detectors and reducing their carrier lifetime. This in turn leads to poor performance by the detector. One of the solutions to this problem is post-growth thermal annealing. In this paper we present experimental results of annealing a CdMnTe wafer at 720 o C and in cadmium vapor. The CdMnTe wafer and cadmium were sealed in a quartz ampoule at a vacuum of 10 -5 mbar. We used a three-zone furnace that enabled us to adjust the three heating elements to get a flat region of 720 o C in the temperature profile where the wafer was annealed. Infrared transmission microscopy showed changes to the sizes and positions of the tellurium inclusions. There are reductions in the dimensions of the medium-size Te inclusions. Some Te inclusions were completely eliminated while others broke up to form much smaller inclusions. Current-voltage measurements showed that the resistivity of the CdMnTe wafer was reduced by 71 %, from 2.44 x 10 5 -cm to 7.17 x 10 4 -cm