TY - JOUR
T1 - Controlling the Vapor Transport Crystal Growth of Hg3Se2I2 Hard Radiation Detector Using Organic Polymer
AU - He, Yihui
AU - Alexander, Grant C.B.
AU - Das, Sanjib
AU - Liu, Zhifu
AU - Hadar, Ido
AU - McCall, Kyle M.
AU - Lin, Wenwen
AU - Xu, Yadong
AU - Chung, Duck Young
AU - Wessels, Bruce W.
AU - Kanatzidis, Mercouri G.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Department of Homeland Security ARI program with Grant 2014-DN-077-ARI086-01. This work at Argonne National Laboratory was supported by the Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development, United States under contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.
PY - 2019/4/3
Y1 - 2019/4/3
N2 - The chalcohalide compound Hg3Se2I2 with a defect anti-perovskite structure has been demonstrated to be a promising semiconductor for room temperature X- and γ-ray detection. In this work, we use transport agents during the vapor growth of Hg3Se2I2 crystals under gradient temperature profiles to dramatically improve the size and yield of Hg3Se2I2 single crystals. Various growth conditions with combinations of organic polymer (polyethylene) with elemental Hg, Se, or I2 are compared. The largest single crystals (with size up to 7 × 5 × 3.5 mm3) were obtained using both polyethylene and excess I2 as the transport agents. The as-prepared detector devices based on these crystals have excellent photo response to a series of radiation sources, including low flux X-ray source, alpha particles, and γ-rays. The X-ray induced photocurrent of Hg3Se2I2 detectors is 3 orders of magnitude higher than the dark current, indicating excellent X-ray photosensitivity. Under 241Am α particle source (5.5 MeV), the best energy resolution obtained is ∼8.1%. The Hg3Se2I2 device also shows improved detector performance under 57Co and 137Cs γ-ray sources. The improved crystal growth and detector performance using this polymer additive during the vapor transport process further confirms the great potential for the development of Hg3Se2I2 for radiation detection.
AB - The chalcohalide compound Hg3Se2I2 with a defect anti-perovskite structure has been demonstrated to be a promising semiconductor for room temperature X- and γ-ray detection. In this work, we use transport agents during the vapor growth of Hg3Se2I2 crystals under gradient temperature profiles to dramatically improve the size and yield of Hg3Se2I2 single crystals. Various growth conditions with combinations of organic polymer (polyethylene) with elemental Hg, Se, or I2 are compared. The largest single crystals (with size up to 7 × 5 × 3.5 mm3) were obtained using both polyethylene and excess I2 as the transport agents. The as-prepared detector devices based on these crystals have excellent photo response to a series of radiation sources, including low flux X-ray source, alpha particles, and γ-rays. The X-ray induced photocurrent of Hg3Se2I2 detectors is 3 orders of magnitude higher than the dark current, indicating excellent X-ray photosensitivity. Under 241Am α particle source (5.5 MeV), the best energy resolution obtained is ∼8.1%. The Hg3Se2I2 device also shows improved detector performance under 57Co and 137Cs γ-ray sources. The improved crystal growth and detector performance using this polymer additive during the vapor transport process further confirms the great potential for the development of Hg3Se2I2 for radiation detection.
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U2 - 10.1021/acs.cgd.8b01646
DO - 10.1021/acs.cgd.8b01646
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85063893262
VL - 19
SP - 2074
EP - 2080
JO - Crystal Growth and Design
JF - Crystal Growth and Design
SN - 1528-7483
IS - 4
ER -