On the stability of the spectral responsivity of cryogenically cooled photoconductive HgCdTe infrared detectors

The spectral responsivity of cryogenically cooled HgCdTe detectors was observed to drift slowly with time. The magnitude of the drift was shown to be strongly dependent on wavelength. The origin of the drift was investigated and was shown to arise due to a thin film of water ice depositing on the active area of the cold detector. The presence of the ice film (which is a dielectric film) interacts with the detector structure thus altering its absorbance characteristics and gives rise to the observed drifts. The drifts were temporarily eliminated by evacuating the detector dewars while baking them at 50 °C for about 48 h. This work demonstrates that HgCdTe infrared detectors should be evacuated and baked at least annually and in some cases (depending on the quality of the dewar and the measurement uncertainty required) more frequently. These observations are particularly relevant to HgCdTe detectors mounted in dewars which utilise rubber O-rings, as the ingress of moisture was found to be particularly serious in this type of dewar. This paper also identified other sources of drift present in the output of cryogenically cooled photoconductive HgCdTe detectors whose origins are currently not understood.