Lead chalcogenide on silicon infrared sensor arrays: Noise mechanisms and 2-d arrays on active chips

Epitaxial IV-VI layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy on Si(1 1 1)-substrates exhibit high structural quality, but typical dislocation densities in the 10(6) to 10(8) cm(-2) range. The sensitivities of photovoltaic p-n(+) sensors (RoA-products) fabricated in PbTe-on-Si layers are, despite these dislocation densities, up to 100 Omegacm(2) at 95K. They scale with the dislocation densities: each dislocation crossing the active area gives rise to a shunt resistance. - A 2-d infrared focal plane array in an epitaxial narrow gap semiconductor material on a Si substrate which contains the read out circuits was demonstrated for the first time: Photovoltaic PbTe-on-Si for the 3-5 mum wavelength range was successfully processed to a 96 x 128 monolithic narrow-gap - silicon array. Mean Ro are 4 MO at 100K.