The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 02, 2001
Filed:
Nov. 26, 1997
Mark A. Hoffbauer, Los Alamos, NM (US);
Thomas H. Prettyman, Los Alamos, NM (US);
The Regents of the University of California, Los Alamos, NM (US);
Abstract
Reduction of surface leakage current by surface passivation of Cd,Zn,Te and other materials using hyperthermal oxygen atoms. Surface effects are important in the performance of CdZnTe room-temperature radiation detectors used as spectrometers since the dark current is often dominated by surface leakage. A process using high-kinetic-energy, neutral oxygen atoms (˜3 eV) to treat the surface of CdZnTe detectors at or near ambient temperatures is described. Improvements in detector performance include significantly reduced leakage current which results in lower detector noise and greater energy resolution for radiation measurements of gamma- and X-rays, thereby increasing the accuracy and sensitivity of measurements of radionuclides having complex gamma-ray spectra, including special nuclear materials.