Method of biasing a photoconductive detector and detector apparatus therefor

摘要

It is a problem extracting the photosignal component from detector output, to the exclusion of pedestal bias response. To overcome this, a time varying bias signal is applied to each element of the detector. The duration of the time varying bias signal, or if a periodic signal, the signal period, is chosen as long compared to photocarrier lifetime and the signal amplitude is large enough to range over a non-linear portion of the responsivity characteristic of each element. The bias signal contains a d.c. component so that the bias signal ranges about a point of operation-a point of asymmetry lying on the responsivity characteristic. The photosignal component of the output signal may be removed by time averaging or by harmonic separation. Alternatively the bias signal may be modulated, and the photosignal component extracted by detection of demodulated signal.