MEASUREMENT OF X-RAY-SPECTRUM USING A SMALL SIZE CDTE MULTICHANNEL DETECTOR

A multichannel detector was fabricated with 32 elements, each 1 mm wide x 0.25 mm long x 0.3 mm thick on a single CdTe crystal wafer whose overall size was 1 x 8 x 0.3 mm. One of the elements was subjected to an energy analysis using diagnostic wavelength X-rays. We note that the energy spectrum was distorted because of the small size of the element. Errors caused by the X-ray escape and by the energy dependency of the photoelectric absorption process were appreciable; however, these errors are specific to narrow energy ranges and can be corrected. The response function of the detector to monochromatic 59.54 keV Am-241 gamma-rays was measured and by fitting the results to a calibration curve, this small size CdTe detector was able to detect X-ray spectra reliably.