Study on the bias-dependent effects of proton-induced damage in CdZnTe radiation detectors using ion beam induced charge microscopy

The influence of damage induced by 2 MeV protons on CdZnTe radiation detectors is investigated using ion beam induced charge (IBIC) microscopy. Charge collection efficiency (CCE) in irradiated region is found to be degraded above a fluence of 3.3 × 1011 p/cm2 and the energy spectrum is severely deteriorated with increasing fluence. Moreover, CCE maps obtained under the applied biases from 50 V to 400 V suggests that local radiation damage results in significant degradation of CCE uniformity, especially under low bias, i. e., 50 V and 100 V. The CCE nonuniformity induced by local radiation damage, however, can be greatly improved by increasing the detector applied bias. This bias-dependent effect of 2 MeV proton-induced radiation damage in CdZnTe detectors is attributed to the interaction of electron cloud and radiation-induced displacement defects.