Field-Induced-Gap Infrared Detectors

Abstract

Semimetals become semiconductors under applied magnetic fields. New detectors require less cooling equipment because they operate at temperatures higher than liquid-helium temperatures required by extrinsic-semiconductor detectors. Magnetic fields for detectors provided by electromagnets based on recently-discovered high-transition-temperature superconducting materials. Detector material has to be semiconductor, in which photon absorbed by exciting electron/hole pair across gap Eg of forbidden energies between valence and conduction energy bands. Magnetic- and compositional-tuning effects combined to obtain two-absorber detector having narrow passband. By variation of applied magnetic field, passband swept through spectrum of interest.