Two-color detector: Mercury-cadmium-telluride as a terahertz and infrared detector

Abstract

In this paper, issues associated with the development of infrared (IR) and terahertz (THz) radiation detectors based on HgCdTe are discussed. Two-color un-cooled and cooled to 78 K narrow-gap mercury-cadmium-telluride semiconductor thin layers with antennas were considered both as sub-THz (sub-THz) direct detection bolometers and 3–10 μm IR photoconductors. The noise equivalent power (NEP) for one of the detectors studied at ν ≈ 140 GHz reaches NEP300 K ≈ 4.5 × 10−10 W/Hz1/2 and NEP78 K ≈ 5 × 10−9 W/Hz1/2. The same detector used as an IR photoconductor showed the responsivity at temperatures T = 78 K and 300 K with signal-to-noise ratio S/N ≈ 750 and 50, respectively, under illumination by using IR monochromator and globar as a thermal source.