Investigation of the small pixel effect in CdZnTe detectors

The signal shapes produced by alpha and X-ray radiation in 2 mm thick CdZnTe detectors have been measured. The signals produced in a single large pad detector and a 300 mum pixilated detector have been compared. The influence of the small pixel effect and it´s variation with detector bias is visible. Synopsys Sentaurus TCAD is used to simulate the charge carrier motion in the detectors and is compared against the measured signals. A description of how the simulations will aid detector design with optimal pixel size, inter-pixel spacing and bias voltage is included.