An evaluation of cadmium telluride detectors for computer assisted tomography.

Cadmium telluride (CdTe) presents a set of extremely attractive features as an X-ray detector for computer assisted tomography (CAT). It is stable and easily handled; has a high detection efficiency and very efficient conversion of energy to charge; and permits a high element density in a compact configuration. Unfortunately, effects due to "polarization," "tailing," high and variable leakage currents, and long "memory" are incompatible with the needs of CAT instrumentation. Pulse-processing techniques have allowed us to eliminate these problems in positive-sensitive detectors, thus opening the way for utilization of CdTe in CAT.