Development of 15 Micron Cutoff Wavelength HgCdTe Detector Arrays for Astronomy

This thesis describes advances in the understanding of HgCdTe detectors. While long wave (15 μm) infrared detectors HgCdTe detectors have been developed for military use under high background irradiance, these arrays had not previously been developed for astronomical use where the background irradiance is a billion times smaller. The main pitfall in developing such arrays for astronomy is the pixel dark current which plagues long wave HgCdTe. The author details work on the success of shorte...