Mercury cadmium telluride

Mercury cadmium telluride (English mercury cadmium telluride, MCT) is the name for a ternary compound semiconductor cadmium telluride and mercury telluride.

Use

MCT is used as the starting material for infrared sensors. An example of this is the high- resolution instrument of Deep Impact spacecraft. The cadmium content in Hg ( 1-x) CdxTe determines the band gap and thus the wavelength sensitivity. Depending on the composition can thus be moved to cut-off wavelength. At 0% mercury (ie CdTe) is the band gap up to 1.5 eV.

It was first synthesized in 1958 by a group of researchers in England. Due to the linearity of the photo -electromagnetic effect of the magnetic field strength thin film sensors of this type can be used for structurally simple magnetometer with a small time constant.