Thick pixelated CZT detectors with isolated steering grids

We explore the possibility to improve the performance of 0.5 cm thick Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) detectors with the help of steering grids on the anode side of the detectors. Steering grids can improve the energy resolution of CZT detectors by enhancing the small pixel effect; furthermore, they can increase their detection efficiency by steering electrons to the anode pixels which otherwise would drift to the area between pixels. Previously, the benefit of steering grids had been compromised by additional noise associated with currents between the steering grids and the anode pixels. We use thin film deposition techniques to isolate the steering grid from the CZT substrate by a 150 nm thick layer of the isolator Al₂O₃. While the thin layer does not affect the beneficial effect of the steering grid on the weighting potentials and the electric field inside the detector, it suppresses the currents between the steering grid and the anode pixels. In this contribution, we present first results from a 2×2×0.5 cm³ CZT detector with 8×8 pixels that we tested before and after deposition of an isolated steering grid. The steering grid improves the 662 keV energy resolution of the detector by a factor of 1.3 (from about 2% to about 1.5%), while not reducing the detection efficiency. To gain further insights into the detector response in the region between pixels, we measured energy spectra with a collimated ¹³⁷Cs source. The collimator measurements can be used to enhance our understanding of energy spectra measured under flood illumination of the detectors.