HgCdTe Material Improvements for High Operating Temperatures

High performance HgCdTe infrared detector arrays operating at 77K are tailored for response across the infrared spectrum (1 to 14+ microns), and utilized in a variety of military and civilian systems for infrared imaging. Reducing cooling requirements allows integration in lighter, more compact systems. Good performance at higher operating temperatures can be provided by a system based on HgCdTe infrared detectors utilizing optimized material parameters (i.e. doping and defects) and non-equilibrium device architectures that suppress detector diffusion current, such as the PIN hetero-junction photodiode. This architecture can eliminate Auger generated diffusion current, resulting in diodes whose performance is only limited by Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) lifetime of the HgCdTe material. In Phase I we demonstrated high quality molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) device layers with the wide range of doping control from