Nonpolarizing radiation detectors based on wide-gap semiconductor crystals

Wide gap, insulating semiconductor crystals offer great promise in photoelectric devices, especially as detectors of electromagnetic and nuclear radiation, but are not widely used because they become polarized during operation. During operation of detectors using these crystals with a high concentration of deep impurity levels, electrical charges build up and produce a change, over time, in the electric field within the crystal and in the magnitude of the detector photoresponse. Since it is impossible to avoid impurity centers in these crystals at this time, we propose new approaches to creating radiation detectors-dosimeters which do not become polarized over time, but rely on productive use of the polarization charges that accumulate in them