Hgcdte avalanche photodiodes: Application for infra-red detection

HgCdTe avalanche photodiode focal plane arrays (FPAs) and single element detectors have been developed for a large scope of photon starved applications. The present communication present the characteristics of our most recent detector developments that opens the horizon of low infrared (IR) photon number detection with high information conservation for imaging, atmospheric lidar and free space telecommunications. In particular, we report on the performance of TEC cooled large detectors with sensitive diameters ranging from 30–200 μm characterised by detector gains of 2–20 V/μW W and noise equivalent input power of 0.1–1 nWfor bandwidth ranging from 20–400 MHz.