An infrared detector is a detector reacting to infrared (IR) radiation. There are two types of infrared detectors:
“thermodetectors”. These detectors react to a change in temperature by the variation of one of their physical properties: electrical resistance (bolometer), thermoelectricity (thermocouple, thermopile), surface charge-capacitance (pyrometer), thermal expansion (Golay cell)... .
“photodetectors”. These detectors operate by absorption of infrared photons and photogeneration of charge carriers (photovoltaic or photoconductive effect) creating an excess current in the material (photocurrent). The main photodetectors are PN photodiodes (mainly mercury-cadmium telluride - HgCdTe), antimony-based type II heterojunction PIN photodiodes, QWIP ( quantum well infrared photodetector ) and QDIP ( quantum dot infrared photodetector). ).
Although the sensitivity and response time of photodetectors are better than those of thermodetectors, as well as the possibility of detecting multiple wavelengths simultaneously, photodetectors generally need to be cooled to cryogenic temperatures due to the thermal noise.