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BIB (blocked-impurity-band) detectors

BIB (blocked-impurity-band) detectors

The two principal Darwin mission requirements driving the detector development are sensitivity and vibration suppression. These mission requirements drive the detector requirements in opposite directions: the need for sensitivity implies the use of cryogenically operated detectors, while vibration minimization implies that vibrations are not induced by the detector cooler. A higher detector operating temperature would potentially remove the need for active cooling and thus contribute to a more quiet mechanical environment, as required by the high precision optical interferometer.

The challenge at hand is thus to achieve the required sensitivity at the highest possible operating temperature. Within this activity extrinsic semiconductor BIB technology tailored to a DARWIN type mission shall be developed. More specifically, we investigate available or promising extrinsic semiconductor BIB detector technologies and study their performance as a function of operating temperature, select the most promising ones to operate at the highest possible temperature – up to 40 K – with the required sensitivity.

Applicability to mission: DARWIN

Technology Readiness Target: 2004-2006

Last Update: 1 September 2019
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3-Jul-2025 23:10 UT

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https://sci.esa.int/s/8rjQX98

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