Mechanism and properties of point-contact metal-insulator-metal diode detectors at 10.6 μ

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Abstract
Detection mechanisms of point‐contact MIM diodes at 10.6 μ wavelength have been studied. Detailed measurements of the static current‐voltage characteristic and its first and second derivatives as functions of bias voltage were made simultaneously with infrared sensitivity measurements. The results indicate that the static current‐voltage characteristics extend to infrared frequencies. We find that thermal effects do not contribute significantly to detection at this wavelength, and that the tungstenwhisker acts as a rather efficient receiving antenna. The antenna and its shunting capacitance apply a 3×1013‐Hz ac voltage to the diode which in our experiment has amplitude 124 mV, through an impedance which is much less than the junction impedance. The diode nonlinearity d 2 I/dV 2 varies from 6.5×10−5 to 6.7×10−3 A/V2 as dc bias increases from 0 to 300 mV. None of these conclusions apply to detection at 6328 Å; it is found that detection in the visible is dominated by thermal or photoconductive effects.
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