Power switching with a new material: CdTe:Cl

Jean Lajzerowicz; Loick Verger; Francoise Mathy; Marc Cuzin; Jacques Pigneret

doi:10.1117/12.59073

12 May 1992 Power switching with a new material: CdTe:Cl

Jean Lajzerowicz, Loick Verger, Francoise Mathy, Marc Cuzin, Jacques Pigneret

Proceedings Volume 1632, Optically Activated Switching II; (1992) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.59073
Event: OE/LASE '92, 1992, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Abstract

CdTe material, with its high molecular weight (240), is widely used for radiation detection. The bandgap energy of CdTe is 1.45 eV. When doped with chlorine, which compensates the acceptor level introduced by cadmium vacancies, CdTe is intrinsic and presents a very high resistivity (> 10⁸ (Omega) cm). The contacts were made by electroless metal deposition and further annealing; they were characterized with DC and pulsed voltages. For the first time, this paper presents power switching experiments with CdTe material. We investigated different types of crystals and contact geometries with gap size varying from less than one mm to a few millimeters. The switches were activated by a YAG laser 10 ns FWHM pulses (1.06 micrometers ) or with 160 kV X-rays 30 ns FWHM pulses. The time constant of recovery was found to be more than 10 ns. In some cases, for high voltages corresponding to fields higher than a few kV/cm, large recovery times of more than 100 ns were measured. This apparently long carrier lifetime, combined with the high resistivity, make CdTe an alternative material to Si and GaAs for some switching applications.

Citation Download Citation

Jean Lajzerowicz, Loick Verger, Francoise Mathy, Marc Cuzin, and Jacques Pigneret "Power switching with a new material: CdTe:Cl", Proc. SPIE 1632, Optically Activated Switching II, (12 May 1992); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.59073

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