Photoresponse of Metal-PbTe Structures to CO2 Laser Excitation

We report on the investigation of photoresponse signal arising across metal-PbTe structures exposed to CO2 laser radiation. Three different metals, Al, Au, and Bi, have been used for Schottky diode-like structure fabrication. The experimental investigations of the photoresponse have been performed in temperature range from 240 K down to 92 K. The dependencies of the detected signal on the applied bias voltage and the signal decay transients were explored as well. Hot carrier effect as well as electron-hole pair generation are considered to be responsible for the photoresponse.