与用其他材料制备的红外光子探测器相比, 碲镉汞红外探测器具有 带隙灵活可调、量子效率较高以及R0 A接近理论值等优点。碲镉汞探测器的主要缺点是需要低温制冷, 以抑制引起噪声的热生自由载流子。期望碲镉汞探测器在具有高工作温度(High Operating Temperature, HOT)的同时而又无需牺牲 性能。HOT碲镉汞探测器的设计目标主要是抑制俄歇过程, 从而降低探测器噪声和低温制冷 需求。从相关基本概念出发, 讨论了对HOT碲镉汞物理机制的理解以及近年来HOT碲镉汞技术的发 展状况。

Compared with the infrared photon detectors fabricated from other materials, the infrared detectors fabricated from mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) have several advantages of highly tunable bandgap, high quantum efficiency and R0A approaching the theoretical limit. The main drawback of the MCT detectors is that they have need to use cryogenic cooling to suppress the thermal-induced free carriers resulting in noise. It is desirable that the MCT detectors can operate at high operating temperatures (HOT) without sacrificing their performance. The HOT/MCT detectors are designed mainly to suppress Auger processes so as to reduce noise and degrade cryogenic cooling requirement. Starting from related basic concepts, the understanding of the physical mechanism of HOT/MCT is discussed and the development of the HOT/MCT detection technology in recent years is presented.