A packaged system of a solid-state microwave-biased photoconductive detector for 10.6 µm

The development of a sensitive all solid-state receiver for 10.6-µm radiation is presented. The receiver consists of an RF-biased mercury doped germanium photoconductor and a solid-state microwave package which includes the detection system and the microwave-biasing source (a transferred electron oscillator). The responsivity of the photodetector was 9.6 × 10³volt per watt at a modulating frequency of 1 kHz, and the photoconductive response time was 7 ns measured at an optical power of 1 µW. At a modulating frequency above 1.5 MHz, the detector system is amplifier noise limited with a noise figure of 8.5 dB. The noise equivalent power (NEP) (10.6 µ, 1.5 MHz, 1 Hz) and detectivity D^*(10.6 µ, 1.5 MHz, 1 Hz) of the detector were 2.5 × 10^-13W (Hz)^-1/2and 4.15 × 10¹⁰cm (Hz)^1/2/W at 4°K, respectively.