Design and study of a coplanar grid array CdZnTe detector for improved spatial resolution

Coplanar grid (CPG) CdZnTe detectors have been used as gamma-ray spectrometers for years. Comparing with pixelated CdZnTe detectors, CPG CdZnTe detectors have either no or poor spatial resolution, which directly limits its use in imaging applications. To address the issue, a 2×2 CPG array CdZnTe detector with dimensions of 7×7×5 mm³ was fabricated. Each of the CPG pairs in the detector was moderately shrunk in size and precisely designed to improve the spatial resolution while maintaining good energy resolution, considering the charge loss at the surface between the strips of each CPG pairs. Preliminary measurements were demonstrated at an energy resolution of 2.7–3.9% for the four CPG pairs using 662 keV gamma rays and with a spatial resolution of 3.3 mm, which is the best spatial resolution ever achieved for CPG CdZnTe detectors. The results reveal that the CPG CdZnTe detector can also be applied to imaging applications at a substantially higher spatial resolution. - Highlights: • A novel structure of coplanar grid CdZnTe detector was designed to evaluate the possibility of applying the detector to gamma-ray imaging applications. • The best spatial resolution of coplanar grid CdZnTe detectors ever reported has been achieved, along with good spectroscopic performance. • Depth correction of the energy spectra using a new algorithm is presented