COMPARATIVE-EVALUATION OF THE TEMPERATURE-DEPENDENCE OF DIFFERENT NOISE SOURCES IN CDTE DETECTORS

The number of applications of CdTe detectors for imaging purposes is c urrently growing at a fast rate. Nevertheless, noise is still a limiti ng factor in several circumstances, particularly when a high dynamic r ange is needed. Thus, knowledge of the comparative importance of vario us noise sources (mainly referring to the dark current in the detector , the electronic noise in the preamplifier and the statistical noise) is valuable for the development of efficient noise reduction technique s. The dependence on temperature of these noise sources has been evalu ated over the range from - 30 degrees C up to 40 degrees C. Although s ome components of the noise show a marked temperature dependence, the overall detector spectroscopic performances are constant up to 10 degr ees C, while above this level an appreciable degradation occurs.