Although various other classes of materials including layered compounds and III-V compounds have also been considered and investigated, for more than four decades, CdTe-based crystals continue to be one of the leading materials for X-ray and gamma-ray spectroscopy applications at room temperature aimed at medical, space and national security applications. One of the major advantages of the CdTe, CdZnTe and CdMnTe group is the easiness to expand to higher energy gap ternaries without severe deterioration of the intrinsic transport properties. Even if quite related, large variations in the purity of starting materials, the yield of single crystal growth process, the uniformity of Zn or Mn and compensating dopants, and the formation of tellurium precipitates exist in this group, thus providing materials science research opportunities that are yet to be explored. Recent results and future challenges will be presented and discussed.

Work in Warsaw was partially funded by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education through grant 3 T08A 046 30.