ABSTRACT
The 1959 publication by Lawson and coworkers triggered the development of variable bandgap Hg1−xCdxTe (HgCdTe) alloys providing an unprecedented degree of freedom in the infrared (IR) detector design [1]. During the conference on Infrared Technology and Applications held in Orlando, Florida, in April 2009, a special session was organized to celebrate the 50th anniversary of this first publication [2]. This session brought together most of the research centers and industrial companies that have participated in the subsequent development of HgCdTe. Figure 17.1 shows the three Royal Radar Establishment inventors of HgCdTe (W. D. Lawson, S. Nielson, and A. S. Young) who disclosed the compound ternary alloy in a 1957 patent [3]. They were joined by E. H. Putley in the first publication dated in 1959 [1].
