Chapter 2 Indium Antimonide Photoconductive and Photoelectromagnetic Detectors

Publisher Summary This chapter describes InSb photoconductive detectors operating at room temperature, dry ice temperature, and liquid nitrogen temperature, and with photoelectromagnetic (PEM) detectors operating at room temperature. Three modes of operation have been of interest: (1) photoconductivity, (2) the photovoltaic effect, and the (3) photoelectromagnetic effect. Interest in the PEM effect was novel; no infrared detectors had previously been made, which is operated by this effect. It can be shown that for materials having a high electron mobility and a low direct lifetime the PEM effect is capable of giving rise to a photosignal larger than that from photoconductivity for reasonable values of magnetic field and electric field. This is followed by a part concerned with theories of the photoconductive and PEM effects in InSb, in which expressions are derived for the spectral responsivity and detectivity for each detecting mode and operating temperature.

[1]  J. Tauc,et al.  The quantum efficiency of the internal photo-electric effect in indium antimonide , 1959 .

[2]  H. Welker,et al.  Group III-Group V Compounds , 1956 .

[3]  D. Long.  On generation-recombination noise in infrared detector materials , 1967 .

[4]  R. Zitter.  Role of Traps in the Photoelectromagnetic and Photoconductive Effects , 1958 .

[5]  A. E. Attard,et al.  Recombination Processes in p-Type Indium Antimonide , 1959 .

[6]  S. C. Choo,et al.  Recombination Centers in InSb , 1967 .

[7]  K. M. van Vliet,et al.  Noise Limitations in Solid State Photodetectors , 1967 .

[8]  J. S. Blakemore.  Semiconductor Statistics , 1962 .

[9]  H. B. Devore.  Spectral Distribution of Photoconductivity , 1956 .

[10]  T. Harman.  Effect of Zone‐Refining Variables on the Segregation of Impurities in Indium‐Antimonide , 1956 .

[11]  C. Hogarth.  Materials used in semiconductor devices , 1965 .

[12]  Carrier Lifetime in Indium Antimonide , 1956 .

[13]  H. Stocker.  Diffusion, Solubility, and Electrical Properties of Copper in Indium Antimonide , 1963 .

[14]  D. W. Goodwin,et al.  New infra-red detectors using indium antimonide , 1957 .

[15]  J. Mullin,et al.  Indium antimonide—A review of its preparation, properties and device applications , 1962 .

[16]  S. W. Kurnick,et al.  Optical Absorption in Pure Single Crystal InSb at 298° and 78°K , 1959 .

[17]  W. Read,et al.  Statistics of the Recombinations of Holes and Electrons , 1952 .

[18]  Dietrich Meyerhofer,et al.  Physics of III-V compounds , 1964 .

[19]  D. W. Goodwin.  The noise power spectrum of p-type indium antimonide , 1961 .

[20]  S. W. Kurnick,et al.  Photoconductive and Photoelectromagnetic Effects in InSb , 1956 .

[21]  H. Ehrenreich,et al.  Optical Properties of Semiconductors , 1963 .

[22]  G. Suits,et al.  Excess Noise in InSb , 1956 .

[23]  L. R. Weisberg,et al.  Semiconducting III – V Compounds , 1963 .

[24]  E. Kane,et al.  Band structure of indium antimonide , 1957 .

[25]  R. A. Laff,et al.  Carrier Lifetime in Indium Antimonide , 1961 .

[26]  G. H. Wheatley,et al.  Anomalous Optical Behavior of InSb and InAs , 1954 .