Directional Compton profiles of CdTe using a low intensity 241Am source

•Reported first-ever directional experimental Compton profile (CP) of CdTe.•Interpreted experimental CP using theoretical CP within density functional theory.•Reported energy bands and DOS of CdTe using DFT–GGA.•Analyzed the anisotropy in CPs in terms of energy bands.•Discussed potential of low intensity 241Am point source in measurement of CPs.

We report the first-ever experimental Compton profiles (CPs) of CdTe measured along [100] and [111] directions using 100 mCi 241Am Compton spectrometer. The experimental Compton data have been interpreted in terms of theoretical anisotropy in the momentum densities and also energy bands computed using density functional theory with local density approximation, generalized gradient approximation (GGA) and second order GGA. It is found that DFT–GGA based CPs are in marginally better agreement with the experimental data in comparison to other DFT based profiles. The anisotropy in CPs is found to be in tune with the energy bands. The bond length (5.23±0.11 a.u.) deduced from the oscillation in the experimental anisotropy reconciles well with the theoretical Cd–Te bond length (5.30 a.u.) which establishes the role of γ-ray Compton measurements in determination of structural parameters.