Methods for evaluating and analyzing CdTe and CdZnTe spectra

Due to continued improvements, CdTe, CdZnTe (CZT) and other room-temperature detectors have generated renewed interest in potential applications – especially, gamma ray measurements for verification of nuclear materials. However, the peaks generally have considerable tailing and therefore are difficult to analyze accurately. Some principals of spectrum analysis are first summarized. This is followed by a discussion of spectrum and peak shape characteristics of some CdTe and CZT detectors we studied and a description of some methods and software analysis tools we developed to evaluate the shape characteristics of typical peaks. We conclude by illustrating the algorithms and analytical techniques we developed thus far by describing some application codes written and implemented for specific safeguards related measurements.