Abstract

An optimized leaf-spring apparatus for applying uniaxial stress to a Ge:Ga far-infrared photoconductor has been designed and tested. This design has significant advantages for space applications which require high quantum efficiency and stable operation over long periods of time. The important features include adequate spring deflection with relatively small overall size, torque-free stress, easy measurement of applied stress, and a detector configuration with high responsivity. One-dimensional arrays of stressed photoconductors can be constructed using this design. A peak responsivity of 38 A/W is achieved in a detector with a cutoff wavelength of 200 μm, which was operated at a temperature of 2.0 K and a bias voltage equal to one half of the breakdown voltage.

© 1987 Optical Society of America

Three-element stressed Ge:Ga photoconductor array for the infrared telescope in space

N. Hiromoto, T. Itabe, H. Shibai, H. Matsuhara, T. Nakagawa, and H. Okuda
Appl. Opt. 31(4) 460-465 (1992)

Stressed Ge:Ga infrared detectors: performance and operational parameters

D. Lutz, D. Lemke, and J. Wolf
Appl. Opt. 25(10) 1698-1700 (1986)

Optical efficiency of far-infrared photoconductors

J.-Q. Wang, P. L. Richards, J. W. Beeman, N. M. Haegel, and E. E. Haller
Appl. Opt. 25(22) 4127-4134 (1986)

Development of a gallium-doped germanium far-infrared photoconductor direct hybrid two-dimensional array

Mikio Fujiwara, Takanori Hirao, Mitsunobu Kawada, Hiroshi Shibai, Shuji Matsuura, Hidehiro Kaneda, Mikhail Patrashin, and Takao Nakagawa
Appl. Opt. 42(12) 2166-2173 (2003)

Cooled Photoconductive Infrared Detectors*

Werner Beyen, Peter Bratt, Howard Davis, Leo Johnson, Henry Levinstein, and Alfred MacRae
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 49(7) 686-692 (1959)