Experiment validation of the high stability of long-term transmitted gamma photon counting of a new CdZnTe semiconductor detector and its preliminary applications

Purpose To develop a detector system with high stability in counting the detection of transmitted gamma photons, which can be applied in the area of non-destructive testing.
Method We used the cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) detector with single-polarity electrodes to substitute the traditional scintillator detector and front-end read-out electronics based on our self-designed low-noise charge-sensitive amplifier.
Results and conclusion The energy resolution of 662 keV from ¹³⁷Cs radioactive source was improved to 1.9%, and the relative standard deviation of different total counts of transmitted photons detected decreased to 0.05% when the counts were more than 5 \times 10^7 , which means the impact from the statistical fluctuation of long-term gamma photons counting will not be a main obstacle to achieving high precision in the area of non-destructive testing. The preliminary experiment of inspecting the inner gaps in the metal rods filled with samples also proved to have good prospects for the CZT detector in non-destructive testing.