Abstract
A novel high-performance ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared (300-820 nm) heterojunction photodiode based on radiation-resistant semiconductor materials is proposed. A titanium nitride (TiN) "window" layer is deposited via magnetron sputtering onto a cadmium zinc telluride (CdZnTe) solid solution single crystal.
The TiN/CdZnTe heterojunction photodiodes concurrently reveal an outstanding detectivity, response time, and linear dynamic range outperforming similar heterojunction photodiodes and photodetectors, based on photoactive inorganic compound semiconductor materials. Moreover, the added feature of the proposed heterojunction photodiodes is their excellent radiation resistance, experimentally demonstrated under short impulse proton irradiation (170 keV) with an accumulated fluence of 2 x 1012 proton cm-2.
This unusual synergy of high performance and advanced radiation resistance of the TiN/CdZnTe photodiodes provides a unique platform for operation in space or radioactively contaminated environments.