CDTE OPTICAL COMPONENTS IN LONG WAVELENGTH INFRARED SYSTEMS

INFRARED SYSTEMS ARE NEEDED FOR A VARIETY OF DEFENSE RELATED APPLICATIONS, SUCH AS: SURVEILLANCE, TARGET DETECTION, ACQUISITION AND TRACKING, MISSILE GUIDANCE, ETC. FOR MANY APPLICATIONS SUCH AS THOSE INVOLVING COLD-DIM TARGETS, THESE SYSTEMS NEED TO OPERATE IN THE VERY LONG WAVELENGTH REGION OF THE INFRARED SPECTRUM, E.G. 15-35 MICRONS CUTOFF. IN THIS WAVELENGTH REGION, THE AVAILABILITY OF SUITABLE MATERIALS FOR OPTICAL COMPONENTS SUCH AS WINDOWS, LENSES AND FILTERS ETC, IS A SIGNIFICANTLY IMPORTANT ISSUE. FOR THESE APPLICATIONS, BASED ON PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES, CDTE IS AN EXCELLENT CHOICE, SUPERIOR TO OTHER KNOWN MATERIALS. HOWEVER, ITS USAGE HAS BEEN SEVERELY LIMITED DUE TO THE LACK OF A SUITABLE PROCESS FOR THE GROWTH OF HIGH QUALITY AND LARGE AREA WAFERS OF IT. RECENTLY, HOWEVER, XACTON HAS ACHIEVED A MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH BY DEVELOPING A NEW PROCESS FOR THE GROWTH OF II-VI COMPOUNDS, AND WILL APPLY THIS PROCESS TO THE GROWTH OF CDTE.