https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-026-02499-1
Regular Article
High performance of room-temperature HgCdTe photoconductive detector via infrared-induced electron injection
1
National Key Laboratory of Infrared Detection Technologies, Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 200083, Shanghai, China
2
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100049, Beijing, China
3
State Key Laboratory of Infrared Physics, Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 200083, Shanghai, China
4
Institute of Optoelectronics, Fudan University, 200433, Shanghai, China
a
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b
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c
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Received:
30
April
2026
Accepted:
22
June
2026
Published online:
6
July
2026
Abstract
Room temperature infrared photoelectric detection is an extreme operation condition and remains a great challenge due to strong background radiation influence on narrow bandgap semiconductor. Herein, we report a high performance of room-temperature mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe) photoconductive detector based on electromagnetic induced well (EIW) effect mechanism, where non-equilibrium carriers injected from metal electrodes induce variations in the bulk resistance of the MCT sensing element by incident infrared light, thereby enabling sensitive photoelectric detection. The detector achieves a responsivity (RV) of 2.5 × 104 V·W−1 and a noise-equivalent power (NEP) of 0.8 × 10–12 W·Hz−1/2 at 600 μm by integrating a micro-sensing element with a square-spiral coupling antenna mounted on an extended silicon hemisphere using quasi-optical coupling mode. It exhibits a significantly enhanced response with increasing wavelength and successfully realizes high-sensitivity detection in the approx. 300–1000 μm band at room temperature. Our findings suggest that the EIW-based MCT detector breaks through the cryogenic bottleneck of photon-type detectors operated in the far-infrared region, paving the way for high performance of spectroscopic imaging and next-generation communication technologies, with broad prospects in spectral analysis, remote sensing, and non-destructive testing.
Copyright comment Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
Yanhong Zhong and Niangjuan Yao are the co-first authors with equal contributions.
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2026
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
