Electric field manipulation in Al/CdTe/Pt detectors under optical perturbations

Al/CdTe/Pt detectors are very attractive devices for high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy, even though they suffer from polarization phenomena, which cause a progressive time degradation of the spectroscopic performance. In this work we investigated on the time dependence of the electric field of an Al/CdTe/Pt detector under optical perturbation by means of Pockels effect measurements. A tunable laser with wavelengths ranging within 700−1000 nm and a 940 nm light emitting diode (LED) were used. The measurements of both the electric field profile and the total current were used to better understand the effects of the optical perturbation on polarization phenomena. The results point out as the above band-gap light, due to the trapping of photo-generated holes at the anode (the Al/CdTe blocking contact), brings to a reduction of the negative space charge caused by the bias voltage (bias induced polarization) and the LED irradiation (radiation induced polarization). The reduction of the negative space charge ensures a quite stable and uniform electric field distribution, typically termed depolarization. Conversely, optical perturbation with sub-band-gap light enhances the polarization with the formation of two oppositely charged regions within the detector.