New Type of ir Photodectors Based on Lead Telluride and Related Alloys

Abstract

Doping of the lead telluride and related alloys with the group III impurities results in an appearance of the unique physical features of a material, such as such as persistent photoresponse, enhanced responsive quantum efficiency (up to 100 photoelectrons/incident photon), radiation hardness and many others. We review the physical principles of operation of the photodetecting devices based on the group ifi-doped IV-VI including the possibilities of a fast quenching of the persistent photoresponse, construction of the focal-plane array, new readout technique, and others. The advantages of infrared photodetecting systems based on the group IIIdoped IV-VI in comparison with the modem photodetectors are summarized.