PbTe rf-sputtered infrared detectors

High‐quality infrared detectors have been made by rf oxygen reactive sputtering of PbTe films. At an operating temperature of 90 °K, these devices are close to the 300 °K background‐noise‐limited photoconductive detection. Peak responsivities higher than 10⁶ V/W and peak detectivities $D_{\lambda }^{*}$ of 8.5 × 10¹⁰ cm Hz^1/2/W have been obtained with a field of view of 2π steradians.