Towards imaging with polycrystalline mercuric iodide semiconductor detectors

Preparation of polycrystalline mercuric iodide very thin (1 μm) films using laser ablation and thick films (100–600μm), using hot pressing, hot wall vapor deposition and screen printing methods, fabricated as radiation detector plates are briefly described. X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence and optical microscopic measurements as well as response to nuclear radiation will be given. Finally, recent results obtained with a large area imaging pixel detector will be shown.