Photodetectors: An Introduction to Current Technology

1 Introduction.- 2 Detector Performance.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.2 Responsivity.- 2.3 Noise Equivalent Power (NEP) and Noise Equivalent Irradiance (NEI).- 2.4 Detectivity.- 2.5 Specific Detectivity.- 2.6 Response Time And Frequency Response.- 2.7 Spectral Response.- 2.8 Detector Noise Sources.- 2.8.1 Johnson Noise.- 2.8.2 Generation - Recombination (G-R) Noise.- 2.8.3 Shot Noise.- 2.8.4 Temperature Noise.- 2.8.5 1/f Noise.- 2.9 Summary.- 3 Thermal Detectors.- 3.1 Introduction.- 3.2 Thermopile.- 3.3 Bolometer.- 3.4 Golay Cell.- 3.5 Pyroelectric Detectors.- 3.5.1 Introduction.- 3.5.2 Detector Performance.- 3.5.3 Pyroelectric Materials.- 3.5.4 Applications.- 4 Photoemissive Detectors.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 Principle of Operation.- 4.3 Conventional Photocathodes.- 4.3.1 Metal Photocathodes.- 4.3.2 Semiconducting Photocathodes.- 4.4 Negative Electron Affinity Devices.- 4.5 Photoemissive Devices and Applications.- 4.5.1 Photodiode.- 4.5.2 The Photomultiplier.- 4.6 Imaging Tubes.- 5 Solid State Photon Detectors.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 Photoconductors.- 5.3 Junction Detectors.- 5.4 Metal - Insulator - Semiconductor Detectors.- 5.5 Examples of Photon Detectors.- 5.5.1 Intrinsic Photoconductors.- 5.5.2 Extrinsic Detectors.- 5.5.3 Junction Detectors.- 5.6 Staring Arrays.- 5.7 Applications of Photon Detectors.- 6 Conclusions.- References.- Selected Abstracts.