Effects of polishing and etching on TlBr single crystals

The single crystal TlBr, a promising candidate as a room temperature gamma-ray detector has material problems that are related to purity, crystal quality and treatment during the detector manufacturing. In this work, the effects of sizing, polishing and etching on properties of TlBr were studied by field emission scanning electron microscope and by the X-ray diffraction rocking curve method. The hydrothermal and thermal annealings were used as the etch methods. The properly polished sample was characterized by current–voltage, capacitance and photocurrent measurements in the range 7–37 °C.