HgI2 Near-Bandgap Photoluminescence Structure and Its Relationship to Nuclear Detector Quality
Abstract
Mercuric iodide is of interest because it is a high-Z material suitable for applications in nuclear radiation detection. It has an advantage over the more commonly used silicon and germanium detectors in that, with its larger bandgap, it can be operated at room temperature. However, several problems exist in using it for fabricating nuclear detectors, an outstanding one being process control during fabrication. The low-temperature photoluminescence spectra of several mercuric iodide detectors and off-stoichiometric bulk material have been characterized. Phonon energies have been determined with Raman spectroscopy over a range of temperatures. In earlier work some of the near-bandgap photoluminescence features were identified as phonon replicas. After careful examination of Raman and photoluminescence data, we find that one or perhaps more of these features are probably due to shallow electronic levels related to native defects. Suggestions as to the relationship between photoluminescence peaks and detector quality are made.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1988
- Accession Number
- ADA197515
Entities
People
- C. Ortale
- D. Wong
- L. Van Den Berg
- R. B. James
- T. E. Schlesinger
Organizations
- Sandia National Laboratories