Optimising the parameters of spectrometers with cadmium-telluride detectors

The influence of the principal physical and electronic factors on the resolving power of spectrometers with cadmium telluride (CdTe) detectors is examined. The influence of the operating voltage of the detector, its current component, the magnitude of the operating resistance, the parameters of the charge preamplifier, the magnitude of the time constants of the pulse shaping amplifier, the detector polarization when the operating voltage is applied, the time taken for the charge to collect at the detector electrodes and the operating temperature of the detector are studied. It was found that CdTe detectors have the advantage over scintillation detectors of better resolving power and greater thermal stability.