Development of advanced germanium detectors using the crystal grown at the University of South Dakota

Germanium (Ge) detectors are used extensively in searching for rare-event physics such as dark matter and neutrinoless double beta decay. At the University of South Dakota (USD), we purify Ge ingots through the process of zone-refining and then grow large-size single crystals using the Czochralski technique. Detector-grade crystals are then fabricated into different detector-contact geometries. We have successfully made about 30 detectors (planar, guard-ring, point contact). This paper will summarize the properties of these detectors. The information obtained from the detector characterization provides valuable feedback to the crystal growth and detector fabrication. The fabrication of detectors with different geometries addresses the requirements of rare-event physics experiments.