Doped Silicon and Germanium Photoconductors as Targets for Infrared Television Camera Tubes

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Abstract
Several doped germanium and silicon photoconductors have been investigated as targets for an infrared television camera tube. The performance of gold-doped silicon is outstanding. Its properties, sensitivity, speed of response, and freedom from various image retention effects are superior to those of a standard vidicon in the visible. It is within an order of magnitude of the maximum performance to be expected of a tube of the vidicon type. The other silicon dopings investigated were gallium, bismuth, and indium. These materials showed very little extrinsic photoconductivity. Copper-, gold-, silver-, and tellurium-doped germanium were also investigated. Targets prepared with all of these germanium dopings showed the development of an insensitive, nonimaging state in a few minutes’ operation. The original imaging state could be recovered by a short change in operating conditions. This nonimaging state has been demonstrated to be due to an induced surface conductivity.

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