Radiation damage and activation of CdZnTe by intermediate energy neutrons

The authors exposed a CdZnTe detector to MeV neutrons from a 252Cf source and found no performance degradation for fluences below 1010 neutrons cm-2. Detector resolution did show significant degradation at higher neutron fluences. There is evidence of room temperature annealing of the radiation effects over time. Activation lines were observed and the responsible isotopes were identified by the energy and half-life of the lines. These radiation damage studies allow evaluation of the robustness of CdZnTe detectors in high neutron and radiation environments