IMPROVING THE PERFORMANCE OF (HgCdTe) PHOTODETECTORS OF INFRARED SEARCH AND TRACK SYSTEMS FOR (3-5 µm) BAND

Abstract

The design of high performance photodetectors for infrared search and track (IRST) systems requires a study of the various parameters of the photodetectors and improve these parameters by modelling and optimizing of specific figures of merit of photodetectors for IR system. As the most often used and the most convenient photodetector material for (IRST) applications in 3-5μm, window mercury cadmium telluride, (Hg_1-xCd_xTe) was chosen.

The objective of this study is to investigate the performance improvement method of (HgCdTe) infrared photodetectors for (3-5μm) band. In order to improve their electrical and optical parameters their figures of merit The MATLAB software is applied and the approaches to their optimization have been investigated.

The influence of different important parameters has been investigated, i.e. the operating temperature, composition (x_cd), etc.  From our results it was found that the maximum responsivity of such type of photodetectors is fulfilled at (3-5μm) band, when the value of x_cd lies in the range of (0.40 > x_cd > 0.28).