Determination of the peak operating point of lead selenide detector at low temperatures

Lead selenide (PbSe) detector plays an important role in infrared application, which operating at low temperature could greatly improve its performance. However, as the temperature drops to a certain critical point, the detection performance of PbSe detectors decreases rather than increases. Therefore, to facilitate its optimal performance, it is essential to explore the operational modes of these detectors at low temperatures. In this work, based on a wide range of temperature conditions, the trend of the PbSe infrared detector signal with temperature is investigated. It is found that, due to the change of the PbSe resistance at light and dark condition respectively, the matching resistor also influences the PbSe infrared detectors performance, especially at low temperature conditions. According to the change curve of the light-dark resistance of the PbSe detector, the corresponding cooling system can be designed with different temperature, or a peak operating temperature could be confirmed.