Application of II-VI materials to nuclear medicine

Semiconductor gamma-ray detector arrays made of II-VI materials such as CdTe or CdZnTe hold great promise for improving the spatial resolution and energy resolution of nuclear medicine imaging systems. This field has benefited greatly from technologies developed in infrared imaging. This report surveys the state of the art for producing high-resolution semiconductor arrays with emphasis on II-VI materials and considers the prospects for producing a semiconductor detector gamma camera. A number of practical designs are reviewed that make use of single-charge-carrier dominance effects to improve useful photopeak fraction and thus efficiency.