New performance of n-type InSb photoconductive detectors

This paper reports on the new performance obtained for n-type InSb photoconductive element detectors, made of bulk crystals. It is taken into account the important drop of the electric conductivity, by one magnitude order over the temperature range 77 K - 90 K, that forced us to optimize the heat transfer among the elements of the device. The maximum value obtained for the spectral detectivity is 4 by 1012 cmHz1/2W-1, at lambda equals 4.9 micrometer, for a field of view of 60 degrees. The calculations show that the device is limited by the generation-recombination noise.