An original method to evaluate the transport parameters and reconstruct the electric field in solid-state photodetectors

A method for reconstructing the spatial profile of the electric field along the thickness of a generic bulk solid-state photodetector is proposed. Furthermore, the mobility and lifetime of both electrons and holes can be evaluated contextually. The method is based on a procedure of minimization built up from current transient profiles induced by laser pulses in a planar detector at different applied voltages. The procedure was tested in CdTe planar detectors for X- and Gamma rays. The devices were measured in a single-carrier transport configuration by impinging laser light on the sample cathode. This method could be suitable for many other devices provided that they are made of materials with sufficiently high resistivity, i.e., with a sufficiently low density of intrinsic carriers.