• 대한방사선기술학회지:방사선기술과학
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• 제37권4호
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• pp.253-259
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• 2014

Traveling heater method(THM) 방법을 이용하여 성장시킨 CdZnTe(CZT) 단결정 방사선 소자에 대한 고에너지(high energy) 감마선 에너지 분해능(energy resolution)을 평가하고자 $6{\times}6{\times}12mm^3$ 크기의 CZT 소자를 제작하였다. 두꺼운 방사선 소자의 경우, 전자에 비해 상대적으로 이동속도가 느린 정공(hole)으로 인해 발생하는 hole-tailing 효과가 심화되어 고에너지 영역의 에너지 분해능이 저하되는 현상이 발생한다. 전자(electron)와 정공(hole)의 두 개의 전하 운반자(charge carrier) 중에서 하나의 전하 운반자를 선택적으로 수집하여 에너지 분해능을 높이는 것이 가능하다. 가상 Frisch-그리드(virtual Frisch-grid) 소자는 소자 내부의 가중 퍼텐셜(weighting potential)을 조절하여 전자에 의한 유도전류(induced current)만을 선택적으로 이용하는 방법으로써 제작 과정과 적용이 용이하다. 본 연구에서는 THM 방법으로 성장한 큰 부피의 CZT 방사선 소자의 특성과 가상 Frisch-그리드의 효용성을 평가하였다. 가상 Frisch-그리드의 적절한 위치와 너비는 Maxwell ver.14(ANSYS, 미국)를 이용하여 모의실험으로 정하였다. $^{137}Cs$ 동위원소를 이용한 펄스 높이 스펙트럼(pulse height spectrum) 측정에서 가상 Frisch-그리드를 적용했을 때 662 keV 피크에 대해 2.2%의 에너지 분해능을 확인할 수 있었다.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제45권1호
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• pp.35-44
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• 2020

Background: Cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) is a promising material because of a high detection efficiency, good energy resolution, and operability at room temperature. However, the cost of CZT dramatically increases as its size increases. In this study, to achieve a large effective volume with relatively low cost, an array structure comprised of individual virtual Frisch-grid CZT detectors was proposed. Materials and Methods: The prototype consisted of 2 × 2 CZTs, a holder, anode and cathode printed circuit boards (PCBs), and an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). CZTs were used and the non-contacting shielding electrode method was applied for virtual Frisch-grid effect. An ASIC was used, and the holder and the PCBs were fabricated. In the current system, because the CZTs formed a common cathode, a total of 5 channels were assigned for data processing. Results and Discussion: An experiment using ¹³⁷Cs at room temperature was conducted for 10 minutes. Energy and timing information was acquired and the depth of interaction was calculated by the timing difference between the signals of both electrodes. Based on obtained three-dimensional position information, the energy correction was carried out, and as a result the energy spectra showed the improvements. In addition, a Compton image was reconstructed using the iterative method. Conclusion: The virtual Frisch-grid CZT detector based on the array structure was developed and the energy spectra and the Compton image were successfully acquired.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권5호
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• pp.1718-1733
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• 2023

The virtual Frisch-grid method for room-temperature radiation detectors has been widely used because of its simplicity and high performance. Recently, side electrodes were separately attached to each surface of the detectors instead of covering the entire detector surface with a single electrode. The side-electrode structure enables the measurement of the three-dimensional (3D) gamma-ray interaction in the detector. The positional information of the interaction can then be utilized to precisely calibrate the response of the detector for gamma-ray spectroscopy and imaging. In this study, we developed a 3D position-sensitive 5 × 5 × 12 mm³ cadmium-zinc-telluride (CZT) detector and applied a flattening method to correct detector responses. Collimated gamma-rays incident on the surface of the detector were scanned to evaluate the positional accuracy of the detection system. Positional distributions of the radiation interactions with the detector were imaged for quantitative and qualitative evaluation. The energy spectra of various radioisotopes were measured and improved by the detector response calibration according to the calculated positional information. The energy spectra ranged from 59.5 keV (emitted by ²⁴¹Am) to 1332 keV (emitted by ⁶⁰Co). The best energy resolution was 1.06% at 662 keV when the CZT detector was voxelized to 20 × 20 × 10.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권12호
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• pp.4080-4092
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• 2021

In this study, the performance of sequence tracking methods for multiple interaction events in specific CdZnTe Compton imagers was evaluated using Monte Carlo simulations. The Compton imager consisted of a 6 × 6 array of virtual Frisch-grid CZT crystals, where the dimensions of each crystal were 5 × 5 × 12 mm³. The sequence tracking methods for another Compton imager that consists of two identical CZT crystals arrays were also evaluated. When 662 keV radiation was incident on the detectors, the percentages of the correct sequences determined by the simple comparison and deterministic methods for two sequential interactions were identical (~80%), while those evaluated using the minimum squared difference method (55-59%) and Three Compton method (45-55%) for three sequential interactions, differed from each other. The reconstructed images of a 662 keV point source detected using single and double arrays were evaluated based on their angular resolution and signal-to-noise ratio, and the results showed that the double arrays outperformed single arrays.