Analyses of crystal growth, optical, electrical, thermal and mechanical properties of an excellent detector-grade Cd_0.9Mn_0.1Te: V crystal

A high-quality cadmium manganese tellurium (Cd_0.9Mn_0.1Te: V or VCMT) crystal was successfully grown via modified Te solution vertical Bridgman method with vanadium doping. The crystal structure and quality were evaluated by powder X-ray diffraction analysis. An infrared transmission spectroscope measured the transmittance of the crystal at 64%, which would suggest that the grown crystal possessed high purity and crystallinity. Ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared spectroscopy analysis obtained the forbidden band width of approximately 1.577 eV. The current-voltage test indicated that the VCMT crystal had a high resistivity of 2.07 × 10¹⁰ Ω·cm. Mechanical properties were measured by a Vickers microhardness tester. Crack surface morphology around the indentation was recorded. Furthermore, mechanical properties, such as microhardness, fracture toughness, brittleness index and yield strength were investigated and discussed. The thermal stability of the VCMT single crystal was determined by thermogravimetric analysis. A VCMT detector was fabricated with planar configuration structure, which showed a resolution of 11.62% of the ²⁴¹Am at 59.5 keV peak.