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High Efficiency, Room Temperature Semiconductor Detectors

Award Information
Agency: Department of Homeland Security
Branch: N/A
Contract: NBCHC050129
Agency Tracking Number: 0511094
Amount: $100,000.00
Phase: Phase I
Program: SBIR
Solicitation Topic Code: H-SB05.1-002
Solicitation Number: N/A
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2005
Award Year: 2005
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): 2005-05-26
Award End Date (Contract End Date): N/A
Small Business Information
44 Hunt Street
Watertown, MA 02472
United States
DUNS: N/A
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 William Higgins
 (617) 668-6831
 BHiggins@RMDInc.com
Business Contact
 Cynthia Korhonen
Phone: (617) 668-6810
Email: CKorhonen@RMDInc.com
Research Institution
N/A
Abstract

Prevention of the spread of nuclear weapons has reached a state of heightened urgency since the events on September 11, 2001. Gamma ray spectrometers are important tools in homeland security to check the spread of nuclear materials and weapons. Important requirements for gamma ray spectrometers used in this application include good energy resolution, high detection efficiency, compact size, light weight, easy portability and low power consumption. None of the currently available detectors meet all of these requirements. In the proposed effort, we plan to explore a wide bandgap semiconductor material, thallium bromide (TlBr), as a room temperature detector for nuclear monitoring. TlBr has high density (7.5 g/cm3) and atomic number constituents for high gamma ray stopping power, and high resistivity (>1010 Wcm) for low noise device operation. Furthermore, the material melts congruently at a modest temperature (480 ¿ C), which allows use of melt-based crystal growth approaches to produce large volume crystals. Recent results indicate that through sufficient material purification, charge transport properties approaching those of CZT can be achieved. The goal of the proposed project is to perform rigorous investigation of purification and crystal growth of this promising material to produce high performance TlBr gamma-ray spectrometers for homeland security.

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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