II-VIs begin to show their potential

摘要

Continuing our series of articles looking at IR-related materials and devices it is the turn of the II-VIs, namely the family of semiconductor materials based on mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe) or MCT. In this article we overview progress in the labs showing where refinement is going on to commercialise MCT detectors. Astronomy and defence are already benefitting from the availability of commercial devices and we illustrate this with important news from Raytheon and Rockwell Scientific, two of the leaders in the development and application of Ⅱ-Ⅵ-based detection technology. Most of today's IR sensors required for imaging arrays in the long-wavelength IR region (8 -12 μm) are based on MCT. However, even with a long history of R&D there are still obstacles to overcome before MCT detectors and arrays can fulfil their great potential.