Investigation of crystallographic and detection properties of CdTe at the ANKA synchrotron light source

The crystallographic properties of a semiconducting CdTe pixelated sensor were investigated at the ANKA synchrotron facility (KIT, Karlsruhe) by means of back reflection white beam topography and high resolution X-ray diffraction. From the results, several orientation contrast features were identified that could be assigned to small angle grain boundaries of 0.01°. Those structures are disseminated in the whole area of the investigated crystal and form a mosaic structure network of tiled and twisted blocks. The topographic mapping of the sensor was correlated with its X-ray response map. The comparison demonstrates the presence of similar features, proving that the structural quality of the sensor material influences the charge carrier transport and consequently the detector performances.