Defects, electronic properties, and α particle energy spectrum response of the Cd_0.9Mn_0.1Te: V single crystal

Cadmium manganese telluride is a promising material for fabricating room-temperature nuclear radiation detectors widely used in medical imaging, environmental protection, nuclear security detection, astrophysics, and so on. The Cd_0.9Mn_0.1Te: V (V: CMT) crystal examined in this work was grown through the Te solution (10% excess) vertical Bridgman method. The low-temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectra indicated that the grown crystal has good quality. A simultaneous thermal excitation current spectrum was used to characterize the effect of vanadium doping on the level defects in the crystal. The current–voltage and Hall test results showed that the crystal resistivity was (3.781–6.185) × 10¹⁰ Ω cm. The conductivity was of n type. The carrier concentration was (1.69–9.94) × 10⁶ cm⁻³. The Hall mobility was (3.08–9.29) × 10³ cm⁻² V⁻¹ s⁻¹. The maximum measured ratio of the light and dark currents, when the crystal was exposed to 5 mW white light, was 11. In addition, the room-temperature electron mobility-lifetime product of the middle sample was 6.925 × 10⁻⁴ cm² V⁻¹ using the ²⁴¹Am@5.48 MeV α particle source.