Measurements of DC photocurrent-voltage characteristic, photocurrents spectral response and laser induced transient current technique enable investigation of surface recombination centers, bulk trap levels and distribution of the inner electric field. In the presented work, the n- type planar CdZnTe detectors with quasi Ohmic contacts were studied by above mentioned methods. It has been shown that in the case of strongly absorbed light under the DC regime of illumination not only surface recombination influences the detector's transport properties. The effect of the space charge, created as a consequence of carriers trapped by the impurity levels, must be taken into account. Therefore some new theoretical models were created in order to describe measured photocurrent-voltage dependencies. Obtained data were fitted with the new theory and the mobility and surface recombination velocity for electrons were determined.

The field of X-ray imaging and X-ray diffraction have been combined in a new technique called Tomographic Energy Dispersive Diffraction Imaging (TEDDI). This diffraction imaging technique allows 3D sample images to be obtained, non-destructively, where each imaged point contains the atomic structural information associated with its diffraction pattern. The main drawback of the TEDDI technique is the long collection times needed to produce the images. In order to overcome this obstacle the rapid TEDDI (rTEDDI) system has been developed at the University of Manchester's Material Science Centre. The research and development of rTEDDI has been the focus of this PhD thesis. A proof of concept for the rTEDDI imaging technique was obtained using thin samples on station 7.6 SRS Daresbury. In this case a first generation array collimator was used in conjunction with an energy resolving Si pixelated detector. Structural information such as lattice parameters, crystal system and phase identiffcation were obtained for metal, polymer and deer antler bone samples. The use of high Z semiconductor detector material was investigated in order to increase the potential of TEDDI for larger and more dense samples. To enable penetration of larger samples high energy X-rays needed to be utilized. In order to detect these higher energies with a good efficiency the detector media was changed from Si to CdZnTe (CZT).The second generation rTEDDI, using CZT as the detection media, was intended to be used under high flux/high energy synchrotron radiation conditions. Testing of the system under these conditions on station 16.3 SRS Daresbury showed an inability to produce diffraction imaging. An in depth investigation into detector and collimator array performance showed a two fold cause. The ERD2004 detector was unable to handle the high countrates experienced during high flux/high energy synchrotron radiation conditions. The MK1.2 collimator array was found to become partially transparent to X-ray energies around the absorption edge of W resulting in the swamping of the diffraction signal under high flux/high energy synchrotron radiation conditions. A new detector Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) design, developed by the detector division and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, and Data Aquisition (DAQ) system, developed by Aspect Systems, as well as a number of new collimator array designs were developed and tested. Testing of the new collimator array structures have shown positive results and the new HEXITECdetector which was designed to be able to handle high countrates, have shown an unprecedented inter pixel uniformity and energy resolution which have been attributed to the ASIC performance and the use of better quality CZT material.

Title: Defects limiting charge collection in semiinsulated CdZnTe Author: Vít Zajac Department: Institute of Physics of Charles University Supervisor: doc. Ing. Jan Franc, DrSc., Institute of Physics of Charles University Abstract: We achieved to detect photoluminescence transitions deep in the band gap in 4 samples cut from 2 different crystals of semiinsulating Cd1-xZnxTe (x = 0,02 - 0,18) in a row of points along the growth axis. The spectral peaks give evidence of the presence of deep levels in the sample and the intensity of the photoluminescence peaks is to a certain extent proportional to the concentration of these levels. A comparison between resistivity and photoconductivity that were measured by a contact-less method showed that the change of photoluminescence intensity of deep levels does not bring about an unambigous change of neither resistivity nor photoconductivity. Correlation analysis of resistivity and photoconductivity of 6 samples from 4 different crystals confirmed the following model: A shift of the Fermi level within the band gap induced by a change of donor-acceptor compensation is accompanied by an unambigous change of resistivity and results in a change in occupation of the deep levels. This causes a change in the photoconductivity of the crystal because the occupation factor of...

Semiconducting material CdTe/CdZnTe has a huge application potential in spectroscopic room temperature radiation detection due to its properties. Such detectors can be used in medical applications, homeland security and for monitoring of nuclear facilities. However, the final device quality is influenced by many parameters. One crucial stage in detector fabrication is the proper surface treatment. The detailed study of surface treatments and their effect on final detector device is reported. Another crucial fact is the polarization of the detector caused by high radiation fluxes which negatively affects the use of such devices. The polarization occurs by capturing the photogenerated holes at the deep levels inside the semiconductor. The possible detector depolarization by infrared illumination during the detector operation has been experimentally verified and the obtained results are shown in this thesis. For optimal technology of preparation, it is also necessary to develop the fast characterization method for prepared detectors. The last aim of the thesis is to study the resulting quality of prepared planar and co-planar detectors by transient-current-technique (TCT). TCT is an electro-optical method allowing to determine variety of transport properties of radiation detectors, such as internal electric...

CdZnTe-Detektoren, zur direkten Messung von Gammastrahlung, die bei der Behandlung mit beschleunigten Teilchen entsteht, besitzen das Potential eine Reichweitenkontrolle zu ermöglichen und die Strahlendosis zu erfassen. Jedoch stellt die Identifizierung einzelner, energetisch nahe beieinander liegenden Photonenenergien, bei einem solchen Volumendetektor eine besondere Herausforderung dar. Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Entwicklung von Methoden zur Korrektur der Signalformen am Volumenhalbleiter CdZnTe und der damit verbundenen Verbesserung der Energie- und Zeitinformation des Detektors. Dies ist wichtig für den Einsatz in der therapeutischen Medizin mit beschleunigten Teilchen, da Ladungsträger durch Gammastrahlung in unterschiedlichen Tiefen des Detektors generiert werden und einen tiefenabhängigen Fehler in der Detektorgenauigkeit erzeugen. / CdZnTe detectors, used for the direct measurement of gamma radiation generated during the treatment with accelerated particles, have the potential to provide a range control and to detect the radiation dose. However, the identification of individual energetically close photon energies in such a volume detector is a particular challenge. The present work deals with the development of methods for correcting the signal forms of the CdZnTe and the associated improvement of the energy and time information of the detector This is important for use in accelerated particle medicine because charge carriers are generated by gamma radiation at different depths of the detector and produce a depth dependent error in detector accuracy.

Background: The irradiation of cancer patients with charged particles, mainly protons and carbon ions, has become an established method for the treatment of specific types of tumors. In comparison with the use of X-rays or gamma-rays, particle therapy has the advantage that the dose distribution in the patient can be precisely controlled. Tissue or organs lying near the tumor will be spared. A verification of the treatment plan with the actual dose deposition by means of a measurement can be done through range assessment of the particle beam. For this purpose, prompt gamma-rays are detected, which are emitted by the affected target volume during irradiation. Motivation: The detection of prompt gamma-rays is a task related to radiation detection and measurement. Nuclear applications in medicine can be found in particular for in vivo diagnosis. In that respect the spatially resolved measurement of gamma-rays is an essential technique for nuclear imaging, however, technical requirements of radiation measurement during particle therapy are much more challenging than those of classical applications. For this purpose, appropriate instruments beyond the state-of-the-art need to be developed and tested for detecting prompt gamma-rays. Hence the success of a method for range assessment of particle beams is largely determined by the implementation of electronics. In practice, this means that a suitable detector material with adapted readout electronics, signal and information processing, and data interface must be utilized to solve the challenges. Thus, the parameters of the system (e.g. segmentation, time or energy resolution) can be optimized depending on the method (e.g. slit camera, time-of-flight measurement or Compton camera). Regardless of the method, the detector system must have a high count rate capability and a large measuring range (>7 MeV). For a subsequent evaluation of a suitable method for imaging, the mentioned parameters may not be restricted by the electronics. Digital signal processing is predestined for multipurpose tasks, and, in terms of the demands made, the performance of such an implementation has to be determined. Materials and methods: In this study, the instrumentation of a detector system for prompt gamma-rays emitted during particle therapy is limited to the use of a cadmium zinc telluride (CdZnTe, CZT) semiconductor detector. The detector crystal is divided into an 8x8 pixel array by segmented electrodes. Analog and digital signal processing are exemplarily tested with this type of detector and aims for application of a Compton camera to range assessment. The electronics are implemented with commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components. If applicable, functional units of the detector system were digitalized and implemented in a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). An efficient implementation of the algorithms in terms of timing and logic utilization is fundamental to the design of digital circuits. The measurement system is characterized with radioactive sources to determine the measurement dynamic range and resolution. Finally, the performance is examined in terms of the requirements of particle therapy with experiments at particle accelerators. Results: A detector system based on a CZT pixel detector has been developed and tested. Although the use of an application-specific integrated circuit is convenient, this approach was rejected because there was no circuit available which met the requirements. Instead, a multichannel, compact, and low-noise analog amplifier circuit with COTS components has been implemented. Finally, the 65 information channels of a detector are digitized, processed and visualized. An advanced digital signal processing transforms the traditional approaches of nuclear electronics in algorithms and digital filter structures for an FPGA. With regard to the characteristic signals (e.g. varying rise times, depth-dependent energy measurement) of a CZT pixel detector, it could be shown that digital pulse processing results in a very good energy resolution (~2% FWHM at 511 keV), as well as permits a time measurement in the range of some tens of nanoseconds. Furthermore, the experimental results have shown that the dynamic range of the detector system could be significantly improved compared to the existing prototype of the Compton camera (~10 keV..7 MeV). Even count rates of ~100 kcps in a high-energy beam could be ultimately processed with the CZT pixel detector. But this is merely a limit of the detector due to its volume, and not related to electronics. In addition, the versatility of digital signal processing has been demonstrated with other detector materials (e.g. CeBr3). With foresight on high data throughput in a distributed data acquisition from multiple detectors, a Gigabit Ethernet link has been implemented as data interface. Conclusions: To fully exploit the capabilities of a CZT pixel detector, a digital signal processing is absolutely necessary. A decisive advantage of the digital approach is the ease of use in a multichannel system. Thus with digitalization, a necessary step has been done to master the complexity of a Compton camera. Furthermore, the benchmark of technology shows that a CZT pixel detector withstands the requirements of measuring prompt gamma-rays during particle therapy. The previously used orthogonal strip detector must be replaced by the pixel detector in favor of increased efficiency and improved energy resolution. With the integration of the developed digital detector system into a Compton camera, it must be ultimately proven whether this method is applicable for range assessment in particle therapy. Even if another method is more convenient in a clinical environment due to practical considerations, the detector system of that method may benefit from the shown instrumentation of a digital signal processing system for nuclear applications.:1. Introduction 1.1. Aim of this work 2. Analog front-end electronics 2.1. State-of-the-art 2.2. Basic design considerations 2.2.1. CZT detector assembly 2.2.2. Electrical characteristics of a CZT pixel detector 2.2.3. High voltage biasing and grounding 2.2.4. Signal formation in CZT detectors 2.2.5. Readout concepts 2.2.6. Operational amplifier 2.3. Circuit design of a charge-sensitive amplifier 2.3.1. Circuit analysis 2.3.2. Charge-to-voltage transfer function 2.3.3. Input coupling of the CSA 2.3.4. Noise 2.4. Implementation and Test 2.5. Results 2.5.1. Test pulse input 2.5.2. Pixel detector 2.6. Conclusion 3. Digital signal processing 3.1. Unfolding-synthesis technique 3.2. Digital deconvolution 3.2.1. Prior work 3.2.2. Discrete-time inverse amplifier transfer function 3.2.3. Application to measured signals 3.2.4. Implementation of a higher order IIR filter 3.2.5. Conclusion 3.3. Digital pulse synthesis 3.3.1. Prior work 3.3.2. FIR filter structures for FPGAs 3.3.3. Optimized fixed-point arithmetic 3.3.4. Conclusion 4. Data interface 4.1. State-of-the-art 4.2. Embedded Gigabit Ethernet protocol stack 4.3. Implementation 4.3.1. System overview 4.3.2. Media Access Control 4.3.3. Embedded protocol stack 4.3.4. Clock synchronization 4.4. Measurements and results 4.4.1. Throughput performance 4.4.2. Synchronization 4.4.3. Resource utilization 4.5. Conclusion 5. Experimental results 5.1. Digital pulse shapers 5.1.1. Spectroscopy application 5.1.2. Timing applications 5.2. Gamma-ray spectroscopy 5.2.1. Energy resolution of scintillation detectors 5.2.2. Energy resolution of a CZT pixel detector 5.3. Gamma-ray timing 5.3.1. Timing performance of scintillation detectors 5.3.2. Timing performance of CZT pixel detectors 5.4. Measurements with a particle beam 5.4.1. Bremsstrahlung Facility at ELBE 6. Discussion 7. Summary 8. Zusammenfassung / Hintergrund: Die Bestrahlung von Krebspatienten mit geladenen Teilchen, vor allem Protonen oder Kohlenstoffionen, ist mittlerweile eine etablierte Methode zur Behandlung von speziellen Tumorarten. Im Vergleich mit der Anwendung von Röntgen- oder Gammastrahlen hat die Teilchentherapie den Vorteil, dass die Dosisverteilung im Patienten präziser gesteuert werden kann. Dadurch werden um den Tumor liegendes Gewebe oder Organe geschont. Die messtechnische Verifikation des Bestrahlungsplans mit der tatsächlichen Dosisdeposition kann über eine Reichweitenkontrolle des Teilchenstrahls erfolgen. Für diesen Zweck werden prompte Gammastrahlen detektiert, die während der Bestrahlung vom getroffenen Zielvolumen emittiert werden. Fragestellung: Die Detektion von prompten Gammastrahlen ist eine Aufgabenstellung der Strahlenmesstechnik. Strahlenanwendungen in der Medizintechnik finden sich insbesondere in der in-vivo Diagnostik. Dabei ist die räumlich aufgelöste Messung von Gammastrahlen bereits zentraler Bestandteil der nuklearmedizinischen Bildgebung, jedoch sind die technischen Anforderungen der Strahlendetektion während der Teilchentherapie im Vergleich mit klassischen Anwendungen weitaus anspruchsvoller. Über den Stand der Technik hinaus müssen für diesen Zweck geeignete Instrumente zur Erfassung der prompten Gammastrahlen entwickelt und erprobt werden. Die elektrotechnische Realisierung bestimmt maßgeblich den Erfolg eines Verfahrens zur Reichweitenkontrolle von Teilchenstrahlen. Konkret bedeutet dies, dass ein geeignetes Detektormaterial mit angepasster Ausleseelektronik, Signal- und Informationsverarbeitung sowie Datenschnittstelle zur Problemlösung eingesetzt werden muss. Damit können die Parameter des Systems (z. B. Segmentierung, Zeit- oder Energieauflösung) in Abhängigkeit der Methode (z.B. Schlitzkamera, Flugzeitmessung oder Compton-Kamera) optimiert werden. Unabhängig vom Verfahren muss das Detektorsystem eine hohe Ratenfestigkeit und einen großen Messbereich (>7 MeV) besitzen. Für die anschließende Evaluierung eines geeigneten Verfahrens zur Bildgebung dürfen die genannten Parameter durch die Elektronik nicht eingeschränkt werden. Eine digitale Signalverarbeitung ist für universelle Aufgaben prädestiniert und die Leistungsfähigkeit einer solchen Implementierung soll hinsichtlich der gestellten Anforderungen bestimmt werden. Material und Methode: Die Instrumentierung eines Detektorsystems für prompte Gammastrahlen beschränkt sich in dieser Arbeit auf die Anwendung eines Cadmiumzinktellurid (CdZnTe, CZT) Halbleiterdetektors. Der Detektorkristall ist durch segmentierte Elektroden in ein 8x8 Pixelarray geteilt. Die analoge und digitale Signalverarbeitung wird beispielhaft mit diesem Detektortyp erprobt und zielt auf die Anwendung zur Reichweitenkontrolle mit einer Compton-Kamera. Die Elektronik wird mit seriengefertigten integrierten Schaltkreisen umgesetzt. Soweit möglich, werden die Funktionseinheiten des Detektorsystems digitalisiert und in einem field-programmable gate array (FPGA) implementiert. Eine effiziente Umsetzung der Algorithmen in Bezug auf Zeitverhalten und Logikverbrauch ist grundlegend für den Entwurf der digitalen Schaltungen. Das Messsystem wird mit radioaktiven Prüfstrahlern hinsichtlich Messbereichsdynamik und Auflösung charakterisiert. Schließlich wird die Leistungsfähigkeit hinsichtlich der Anforderungen der Teilchentherapie mit Experimenten am Teilchenbeschleuniger untersucht. Ergebnisse: Es wurde ein Detektorsystem auf Basis von CZT Pixeldetektoren entwickelt und erprobt. Obwohl der Einsatz einer anwendungsspezifischen integrierten Schaltung zweckmäßig wäre, wurde dieser Ansatz zurückgewiesen, da kein verfügbarer Schaltkreis die Anforderungen erfüllte. Stattdessen wurde eine vielkanalige, kompakte und rauscharme analoge Verstärkerschaltung mit seriengefertigten integrierten Schaltkreisen aufgebaut. Letztendlich werden die 65 Informationskanäle eines Detektors digitalisiert, verarbeitet und visualisiert. Eine fortschrittliche digitale Signalverarbeitung überführt die traditionellen Ansätze der Nuklearelektronik in Algorithmen und digitale Filterstrukturen für einen FPGA. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass die digitale Pulsverarbeitung in Bezug auf die charakteristischen Signale (u.a. variierende Anstiegszeiten, tiefenabhängige Energiemessung) eines CZT Pixeldetektors eine sehr gute Energieauflösung (~2% FWHM at 511 keV) sowie eine Zeitmessung im Bereich von einigen 10 ns ermöglicht. Weiterhin haben die experimentellen Ergebnisse gezeigt, dass der Dynamikbereich des Detektorsystems im Vergleich zum bestehenden Prototyp der Compton-Kamera deutlich verbessert werden konnte (~10 keV..7 MeV). Nach allem konnten auch Zählraten von >100 kcps in einem hochenergetischen Strahl mit dem CZT Pixeldetektor verarbeitet werden. Dies stellt aber lediglich eine Begrenzung des Detektors aufgrund seines Volumens, nicht jedoch der Elektronik, dar. Zudem wurde die Vielseitigkeit der digitalen Signalverarbeitung auch mit anderen Detektormaterialen (u.a. CeBr3) demonstriert. Mit Voraussicht auf einen hohen Datendurchsatz in einer verteilten Datenerfassung von mehreren Detektoren, wurde als Datenschnittstelle eine Gigabit Ethernet Verbindung implementiert. Schlussfolgerung: Um die Leistungsfähigkeit eines CZT Pixeldetektors vollständig auszunutzen, ist eine digitale Signalverarbeitung zwingend notwendig. Ein entscheidender Vorteil des digitalen Ansatzes ist die einfache Handhabbarkeit in einem vielkanaligen System. Mit der Digitalisierung wurde ein notwendiger Schritt getan, um die Komplexität einer Compton-Kamera beherrschbar zu machen. Weiterhin zeigt die Technologiebewertung, dass ein CZT Pixeldetektor den Anforderungen der Teilchentherapie für die Messung prompter Gammastrahlen stand hält. Der bisher eingesetzte Streifendetektor muss zugunsten einer gesteigerten Effizienz und verbesserter Energieauflösung durch den Pixeldetektor ersetzt werden. Mit der Integration des entwickelten digitalen Detektorsystems in eine Compton-Kamera muss abschließend geprüft werden, ob dieses Verfahren für die Reichweitenkontrolle in der Teilchentherapie anwendbar ist. Auch wenn sich herausstellt, dass ein anderes Verfahren unter klinischen Bedingungen praktikabler ist, so kann auch dieses Detektorsystem von der gezeigten Instrumentierung eines digitalen Signalverarbeitungssystems profitieren.:1. Introduction 1.1. Aim of this work 2. Analog front-end electronics 2.1. State-of-the-art 2.2. Basic design considerations 2.2.1. CZT detector assembly 2.2.2. Electrical characteristics of a CZT pixel detector 2.2.3. High voltage biasing and grounding 2.2.4. Signal formation in CZT detectors 2.2.5. Readout concepts 2.2.6. Operational amplifier 2.3. Circuit design of a charge-sensitive amplifier 2.3.1. Circuit analysis 2.3.2. Charge-to-voltage transfer function 2.3.3. Input coupling of the CSA 2.3.4. Noise 2.4. Implementation and Test 2.5. Results 2.5.1. Test pulse input 2.5.2. Pixel detector 2.6. Conclusion 3. Digital signal processing 3.1. Unfolding-synthesis technique 3.2. Digital deconvolution 3.2.1. Prior work 3.2.2. Discrete-time inverse amplifier transfer function 3.2.3. Application to measured signals 3.2.4. Implementation of a higher order IIR filter 3.2.5. Conclusion 3.3. Digital pulse synthesis 3.3.1. Prior work 3.3.2. FIR filter structures for FPGAs 3.3.3. Optimized fixed-point arithmetic 3.3.4. Conclusion 4. Data interface 4.1. State-of-the-art 4.2. Embedded Gigabit Ethernet protocol stack 4.3. Implementation 4.3.1. System overview 4.3.2. Media Access Control 4.3.3. Embedded protocol stack 4.3.4. Clock synchronization 4.4. Measurements and results 4.4.1. Throughput performance 4.4.2. Synchronization 4.4.3. Resource utilization 4.5. Conclusion 5. Experimental results 5.1. Digital pulse shapers 5.1.1. Spectroscopy application 5.1.2. Timing applications 5.2. Gamma-ray spectroscopy 5.2.1. Energy resolution of scintillation detectors 5.2.2. Energy resolution of a CZT pixel detector 5.3. Gamma-ray timing 5.3.1. Timing performance of scintillation detectors 5.3.2. Timing performance of CZT pixel detectors 5.4. Measurements with a particle beam 5.4.1. Bremsstrahlung Facility at ELBE 6. Discussion 7. Summary 8. Zusammenfassung

The inference of massive neutrino states through the observation of flavor oscillations boosted the importance of direct and indirect mass searches, including the search for the hypothesized neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ-decay). Nowadays, the search for this ultra-rare nuclear transition is one of the most active research fields at the intersection of nuclear, particle and astroparticle physics. Its main and evident feature is the explicit violation of the total lepton number, which is an accidentally conserved quantity in the Standard Model of particle physics, and would prove the Majorana nature of neutrinos. This, in turn, would support the theoretical explanation of the origin of the observed baryon asymmetry in the universe through the process of leptogenisis and could shed light on the role of neutrinos in the early universe’s structure formation. For the theoretical description of the 0νββ-decay, nuclear structure effects play an important role as they may affect considerably the decay rate. These nuclear effects are summarized as the nuclear matrix elements (NMEs), containing information about the initial and final states of the involved atomic nuclei and the decay mechanism. Under the assumption of light Majorana neutrino exchange, the inverse half-life is proportional to the effective Majorana neutrino mass, a kinematic phase-space factor, the involved NMEs and the fourth power of the weak axial-vector coupling gA. The search for the 0νββ-decay is driven by experiments and an accurate description of the nuclear structure effects is essential to estimate the required sensitivity to cover a certain mass range. In order to match theoretical calculations and the results of β-decay and ββ-decay studies, there is a scientific discussion regarding quenching effects of gA in nuclear media. Different methods are being investigated to determine an effective gA at the energy scale of nuclear transitions. One of those recently proposed methods exploits the dependency of the spectrum-shape of highly forbidden β-decays on gA. An ideal candidate for such an investigation is the fourfold forbidden non-unique β-decay of Cd-113, which is the most prominent signal in the current stage of the COBRA experiment searching for 0νββ-decays with cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) solid state detectors. The detector material CZT acts as a semiconductor at room temperature and contains intrinsically several candidates for rare nuclear transitions. The experiment is located at the LNGS underground facility in Italy, which is shielded against cosmic rays by a mean rock coverage of about 1400 m. In the present demonstrator phase, it consists of 64 coplanar grid (CPG) detectors that are arranged in four layers of 4 x 4 crystals. In the scope of this thesis, conventional and novel prototype CPG-CZT detectors, which are the basis for an anticipated large-scale experiment, are characterized by evaluating homogeneous and localized γ-ray irradiation measurements. Moreover, a novel pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) technique is established, optimized and applied in the analysis of the physics data obtained with the demonstrator array. The PSD optimization is complemented by dedicated laboratory measurements with the aim to create a pulseshape library of signal-like single-site events and high-energy cosmic muon interactions for which an analytic reconstruction model has been developed. For the first time, the COBRA demonstrator’s full exposure from Sept.’11 to Nov.’19 is analyzed, including a detailed background characterization as well as an automatized data partitioning to identify periods with increased backgrounds. The main subject is the study of the Cd-113 β-decay’s spectrum-shape to address the quenching of gA in lowmomentum exchange nuclear processes. The analysis of the experimental data is carried out in the context of three nuclear frameworks and confirms the idea of a significantly quenched gA. Furthermore, the data are analyzed with respect to the 2νββ-decay of Cd-116 and the long-lived α-decay of Pt-190 as a localized contaminant in the CZT detectors’ electrode metalization. Finally, the prospects of a search for excited state transitions of the ββ-nuclides Cd-116 and Te-130 are studied with elaborate Monte-Carlo simulations. The analysis section is concluded with an estimate of the achievable 0νββ-decay half-life sensitivity for multiple ββ-nuclides given the full exposure of the COBRA demonstrator and the recently achieved upgrade to the COBRA eXtended DEMonstrator (XDEM).

Les détecteurs gamma semi-conducteurs monolithiques pixellisés en CdTe et CdZnTe sont amenés à remplacer les détecteurs à base de scintillateur pour des applications médicales, notamment pour la tomographie d'émission de photons uniques (SPECT). Outre la compacité, ils présentent de meilleures performances spectrométriques : la résolution en énergie, l'efficacité de détection, et la résolution spatiale. De plus, la profondeur d'interaction des photons dans le cristal peut être mesurée. <br />Ce travail a consisté à étudier expérimentalement et par simulation, les corrélations entre le pas des anodes, les propriétés physiques des matériaux (résistivité et propriétés de transport des électrons) et les performances spectrométriques des détecteurs. Nous avons comparé plusieurs méthodes de mesure de la profondeur d'interaction des photons et avons obtenu une résolution en énergie à 122 keV comprise entre 1.7 % et 7 %, selon le matériau, pour 5 mm d'épaisseur. Le partage de charges entre les anodes des détecteurs a été étudié et un traitement des informations mesurées est proposé.

This thesis is focused on study of charge transport in semiconducting radiation detectors. Theoretical calculations of current waveforms based on continuity equation and drift-diffusion equation are done. Useful approximations of current waveforms for detector with shallow electron trap are discussed. Monte Carlo simulation of the current waveforms is proposed and applied to fit experimental current waveforms measured using laser-induced transient current technique and for evaluation of charge transport parameters of the detector such as electric field profile, trapping and detrapping time of traps, drift mobility and other parameters. Detectors prepared from semi-insulating GaAs and CdZnTe single crystals are tested using electrical, spectroscopic and optical characterization techniques.

Title: Photo-Hall effect spectroscopy and laser-induced transient currents in CdTe-based semiconductor radiation detectors Author: Artem Musiienko Department / Institute: Institute of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University Supervisor of the doctoral thesis: Prof. RNDr. Roman Grill, CSc, Institute of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University Abstract: Cadmium Telluride, Cadmium Zinc Telluride, and Cadmium Manganese Telluride are important semiconductors with applications in radiation detection, solar cells, and electro-optic modulators. Their electrical and optical properties are principally controlled by defects forming energy levels within the bandgap. Such defects create recombination and trapping centers capturing photo- created carriers and depreciating the performance of the detector. Simultaneously, the changed occupancy of levels leads to the charging of detector's bulk, which results in the screening of applied bias and the loss of detector's sensitivity. Detailed knowledge of crystal defect structure is thus necessary for the predictable detector work and also for the possibility to reduce the structural defects concentration. This thesis reports on the investigation of deep energy levels in CdTe-based high resistivity and detector-grade materials by...