A carbon nanotube based x-ray detector

X-ray detectors based on metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistors couple instantaneous measurement with high accuracy. However, they only have a limited measurement lifetime because they undergo permanent degradation due to x-ray beam exposure. A field effect transistor based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs), however, overcomes this drawback of permanent degradation, because it can be reset into its starting state after being exposed to the x-ray beam. In this work the CNTs were deposited using a dielectrophoresis method on SiO₂ coated p-type (boron-doped) Si substrates. For the prepared devices a best gate voltage shift of 244 V Gy^-1 and a source-drain current sensitivity of 382 nA Gy^-1 were achieved. These values are larger than those reached by the currently used MOSFET based devices.