Studies of crystalline CdZnTe radiation detectors and polycrystalline thin film CdTe for X-ray imaging applications.

The development of a replacement to the conventional film based X-ray imaging technique is required for many reasons. One possible route for this is the use of a large area film of a suitable semiconductor overlaid on an amorphous silicon readout array. A suitable semiconductor exists in cadmium telluride and its tertiary alloy cadmium zinc telluride. In this thesis the spectroscopic characteristics of commercially available CZT X- and gamma-radiation detectors are established. The electronic, optical, electro-optic, structural and compositional properties of these detectors are then investigated. The attained data is used to infer a greater understanding for the carrier transport in a CZT radiation detector following the interaction of a high energy photon. Following this a method used to fabricate large area films of CdTe on a commercial scale is described. This is cathodic electrodeposition from an aqueous electrolyte. The theory and experimental arrangement for this technique are described in detail with preliminary results from the fabricated films presented. Attention is then turned to the CdS/CdTe films that are produced commercially for the photovoltaic industry. In this case the crystalline nature, surface topography and optical properties are investigated. A conclusion examines the progress that has been made towards the development of a large area flat panel digital imaging technique