<title>Cooled and uncooled infrared detectors based on yttrium barium copper oxide</title>

Abstract

We review performance and physical characteristics of yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO) compound as an infrared (IR) photodetector. YBCO has been used as the IR detector material in both superconducting (oxygen-rich) and semiconducting (oxygen-depleted) phases. YBCO in its crystalline, Yba2Cu3O6+x phase with x>0.95 is a high-temperature superconducting material with the superconducting transition Tcapproximately equals 90K. The superconducting YBCOIR detectors operate as either nonequilibrium (quantum) or bolometric (thermal) devices. The nonequilibrium devices are characterized by very short, single-picosecond photoresponse times and are expected to find applications in optoelectronics and imaging, as well as ultrafast optical-to-electrical transducers for digital input applications. The bolometric mechanism results in relatively slow but very sensitive detectors with possible applications in astronomy. In addition to superconducting IR sensors, interest in uncooled YBCO devices is growing very rapidly. Despite somewhat lower sensitivity and significantly reduced speed of response, as compared to the superconducting counterpartners, the uncooled IR detectors are characterized by much lower operating cost and weight due to lack of cooling cryogens and are compatible with existing silicon-based processing and fabrication. The last point is of paramount importance if the IR-sensitive pixels are to be integrated with CMOS read-out circuitry for monolithic focal plane arrays and infrared cameras. Amorphous uncooled YBCO photodetectors operate as either photoconductive bolometers of unbiased pyroelectric devices.© (2001) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.