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Seeded Crystal Growth of Cd-Zn-Te (CZT) Assisted via Numerical Modelling

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Abstract

Cd-Zn-Te/CdTe is material of choice for room temperature X-ray and gamma-ray detector applications, spanning security, medical and astronomical imaging. However, potential applications of this material are limited by unfavorable thermo-physical properties that make the crystal growth of large volume material challenging (particularly at faster growth rates). This chapter provides an overview of an attempt to develop a potential alternate growth method capable of growing large volume material at faster growth rates (2 mm/h), without the need for post processing. The growth technique discussed involves seeding in combination with the accelerated crucible rotation technique (ACRT). Successful seeding is accomplished by modifying the heat sink setup in an electro-dynamic gradient (EDG) furnace, and the effects of different heat sink configurations are discussed. Repeatability of seeding is also discussed along with the effect of initializing ACRT on tellurium inclusion distribution and grain structure. The propagation of grain structure along the crystal is demonstrated by consecutive crystal growth experiments.

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Acknowledgements

Crystal growth efforts performed as part of this work are dedicated to late Professor Kelvin G. Lynn (1948–2020), who initiated and supervised Cd-Zn-Te research at WSU. The authors acknowledge former PhD students Dr. Jedidiah McCoy and Dr. Amlan Datta for helping in many way during the Ph.D. work of SK. We thank the members of IMR, WSU, Jasdeep Singh, and Becky Griswold for their assistance. We acknowledge the input provided by Dr. Mia Divecha, and Prof. Jeff Derby of the University of Minnesota towards implementing ACRT at WSU. Authors would also like to acknowledge the feedback provided by Dr. Aleksey Bolotnikov of Brookhaven National Laboratory. This work was supported by US Department of Energy—DE-SC0020023 STTR project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Material Research, Washington State University, Pullman, 99613, USA

    Saketh Kakkireni, Magesh Murugesan & John McCloy

  2. Radiation Detection Technologies, Inc, Manhattan, KS, 66506, USA

    Benjamin Montag

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  1. Saketh Kakkireni
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  2. Magesh Murugesan
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  4. John McCloy
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Correspondence to John McCloy .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. SR University, Warangal, India

    Laxman Raju Thoutam

  2. SR University, Warangal, India

    Shubham Tayal

  3. SR University, Warangal, India

    J. Ajayan

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Kakkireni, S., Murugesan, M., Montag, B., McCloy, J. (2022). Seeded Crystal Growth of Cd-Zn-Te (CZT) Assisted via Numerical Modelling. In: Thoutam, L.R., Tayal, S., Ajayan, J. (eds) Emerging Materials. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1312-9_3

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