Production of radionuclides by 1.7 GeV proton-induced reactions on CdTe crystals

High levels of background radiation are one of the major problems associated with satellite-borne telescopes operating in the gamma-ray domain. Although there are many contributions to this background, cosmic-proton induced radioactivity is perhaps the most difficult to remove because of the delayed gamma-emission. As a part of the INTEGRAL project a series of studies have been performed on a range of materials to determine the production cross sections for unstable isotopes produced by energetic protons. In this paper we present results for the irradiation of small (5 x 5 x 2 mm) cadmium telluride (CdTe) crystal with 1.7 GeV protons. Data are given for experimentally determined production cross sections which are compared to simulation predictions by the GEANT/GCALOR code.