The application of CdZnTe photon counting detectors was achieved based on a linear array photon counting module. Two kinds of typical counting performance (C1, C2) have been observed when CdZnTe photon counting detectors were exposed to high flux X-ray beams. The X-ray pulse height spectrum characteristics, rise time of preamplifier pulse signal and defect level of the two typical CdZnTe detectors were studied and the intrinsic relationship between the above three results and the photon counting performance were demonstrated. Based on these results, the influence of temperature on the photon counting performance of the C2 detectors was studied. Increasing temperature can restrain the failure of detector induced by polarization effect and increase the counting rate, i.e. when the temperature rises to 33 °C, the counting performance of the detector was significantly improved. Finally, the multi-energy region imaging results of C2 detectors at different temperatures were obtained using the linear array photon counting module, which showd that raising temperature significantly increase the image contrast and improve the imaging quality. The study provides an effective means to improve the performance of CdZnTe photon counting detectors by controlling external conditions.