HgI2 near-band-gap photoluminescence structure and its relationship to nuclear detector quality

Abstract

The low-temperature photoluminescence spectra of several mercuric iodide detectors and off-stoichiometric bulk material have been characterized. Phonon energies have been determined with Raman spectroscopy over a range of temperatures. In earlier work some of the near-band-gap photoluminescence features were identified as phonon replicas. After careful examination of Raman and photoluminescence data, we find that one or perhaps more of these features is probably due to shallow electronic levels related to native defects. Suggestions as to the relationship between photoluminescence peaks and detector quality are made.