Growth of CZT crystal by the THM aboard the Foton-M4 spacecraft.
- Paper number
IAC-15,A2,4,4,x28198
- Author
Dr. Alexander Senchenkov, Research and Development Institute for Launch Complexes (NIISK), Russian Federation
- Coauthor
Dr. Michael Fiederle, Freiburger Material Forschungszentrum, University of Freiburg (FMF), Germany
- Coauthor
Dr. Nikolai Kolesnikov, Institute of Solid State Physics of Russian Academy of Sciences (IFTT RAN), Russian Federation
- Year
2015
- Abstract
Cd1-xZnxTe (CZT) with the ZnTe content (x) of 8-15% is a promising material for the fabrication of room temperature X- and gamma-ray detectors with application in security systems as well as in high-energy astrophysics research and medical imaging. But, despite of years of intensive research, growth of large grain good quality uniform CZT with reasonable yield remains a challenge for commercial production. Space flight conditions open new opportunities for improving the quality of the CZT crystals due to suppression of uncontrollable gravitational convection, absence of hydrostatic pressure, as well as partial prevention of Te inclusions coalescence in the melt. To study the effect of microgravity on the quality of CZT crystals, a growth experiment was carried out during the flight of the Russian automatic Foton-M4 spacecraft in August 2014. CZT crystal with 32 mm in diameter was successfully grown by the Travelling Heater Method (THM) from Te-rich solution with application of a rotating magnetic field. The translation speed was 0.3 mm/h, estimated growing interface temperature was about 780°C. The crystal grown has a large single crystal part with good axial and radial composition homogeneity. Optical and electrical properties of the flight crystal are given in comparison with those for the reference crystal, grown under terrestrial conditions at the same technological regime.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)