The use of mercuric iodide in instruments for safeguards and non-proliferation applications

Mercuric Iodide is a material exceptionally suited for solid state detectors operating at room temperature. The high density and the high atomic numbers of the constituent elements provide a large absorption factor and a high full-energy-peak efficiency at gamma ray energies. The large electronic bandgap results in a very high resistivity and therefore a low leakage current at temperatures within and outside the personal comfort range. Constellation Technology has developed the technology to grow large, high quality crystals from mercuric iodide. Spectrometry grade detectors with dimensions of 25 mm x 25 mm x 3 mm and with an energy resolution of approximately 3% FWHM at 662 keV can be fabricated from these mercuric iodide crystals. The spectral resolution is primarily determined by the transport properties of the holes that at present still have relatively low values. When radiation of lower energy needs to be measured, it is possible to reduce the thickness of the detector and still maintain an acceptable detection efficiency. The spectrum of a 1.5 mm thick detector is shown. The resolution of this detector approximately 1.8% FWHM and the peak-to-valley ratio is larger than twelve. Standard semi-Gaussian processing and no pulse-shape discrimination was used. These detectors can be conveniently incorporated into hand-held instruments to detect weak sources or heavily shielded sources. Previous measurements have shown that the Minimum Detectable Activity (MDA) of a 3 mm thick mercuric iodide detector with dimensions as given above is about 10% less than the MDA of a 50 mm x 50 mm sodium iodide detector, due to the superior energy resolution. Software methods are being developed to improve the identification of weak sources against a large background. Results of these measurements will be presented