Abstract
CdZnTe has been the focus of intense research as an attractive alternative material as a semiconductor radiation detector. Due to recent advances in the growth of the CdZnTe crystals it has been possible to develop small pixel, spectroscopic radiation detectors which overcome the poor hole transport properties of CdZnTe. This project utilized the PIXIE ASIC to investigate effects relating to pixelated detectors. This work focused a wide range of effects relating to pixelated CdZnTe radiation detectors. Investigations into single pixel effects resulted in investigation how different components of electronic noise effect detector performance. Furthermore the charge collection efficiency of each pixel was investigated to quantify its effect on the spectroscopic performance. Multiple pixel effects, for example charge sharing between adjacent pixels when pixel size is significantly smaller that detector thickness was investigated. X-ray spectroscopy studies were undertaken to investigate how the level of charge sharing is effected by the incident X-ray energy and the pixel size of the pixel array. Charge sharing and charge loss in a 250 um pitch CdZnTe pixel detector was also investigated using a mono-chromatic X-ray beam at the Diamond Light Source, U. K. Using a 20 um beam diameter the detector response has been mapped for X-ray energies both above (40 keV) and below (26 keV) the material K-shell absorption energies to study charge sharing and the role of fluorescence X-rays in these events. Furthermore how the bias applied to detector effects the level of charge sharing and charge loss will be investigated.