1/f noise in large-area Hg<Subscript>1−x</Subscript>Cd<Subscript>x</Subscript>Te photodiodes

The 1/f noise in photovoltaic (PV) molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE)-grown Hg_1−xCd_xTe double-layer planar heterostructure (DLPH) large-area detectors is a critical noise component with the potential to limit sensitivity of the cross-track infrared sounder (CrIS) instrument. Therefore, an understanding of the origins and mechanisms of noise currents in these PV detectors is of great importance. Excess low-frequency noise has been measured on a number of 1000-μm-diameter active-area detectors of varying “quality” (i.e., having a wide range of I-V characteristics at 78 K). The 1/f noise was measured as a function of cut-off wavelength under illuminated conditions. For short-wave infrared (SWIR) detectors at 98 K, minimal 1/f noise was measured when the total current was dominated by diffusion with white noise spectral density in the mid-10⁻¹⁵A/Hz^1/2 range. For SWIR detectors dominated by other than diffusion current, the ratio, α, of the noise current in unit bandwidth i_n(f = 1 Hz, V_d = −60 mV, and Δf = 1 Hz) to dark current I_d(V_d = −60 mV) was α_SW-d = i_n/I_d ∼ 1 × 10⁻³. The SWIR detectors measured at 0 mV under illuminated conditions had median α_SW-P = i_n/I_ph ∼ 7 × 10⁻⁶. For mid-wave infrared (MWIR) detectors, α_MW-d = i_n/I_d ∼ 2 × 10⁻⁴, due to tunneling current contributions to the 1/f noise. Measurements on forty-nine 1000-μm-diameter MWIR detectors under illuminated conditions at 98 K and −60 mV bias resulted in α_MW-P = i_n/I_ph = 4.16 ± 1.69 × 10⁻⁶. A significant point to note is that the photo-induced noise spectra are nearly identical at 0 mV and 100 mV reverse bias, with a noise-current-to-photocurrent ratio, α_MW-P, in the mid 10⁻⁶ range. For long-wave infrared (LWIR) detectors measured at 78 K, the ratio, α_LW-d = i_n/I_d ∼ 6 × 10⁻⁶, for the best performers. The majority of the LWIR detectors exhibited α_LW-d on the order of 2 × 10⁻⁵. The photo-induced 1/f noise had α_LW-P = i_n/I_ph ∼ 5 × 10⁻⁶. The value of the noise-current-to-dark-current ratio, α appears to increase with increasing bandgap. It is not clear if this is due to different current mechanisms impacting 1/f noise performance. Measurements on detectors of different bandgaps are needed at temperatures where diffusion current is the dominant current. Excess low-frequency noise measurements made as a function of detector reverse bias indicate 1/f noise may result primarily from the dominant current mechanism at each particular bias. The 1/f noise was not a direct function of the applied bias.     

High-pressure fluidized bed coating utilizing supercritical carbon dioxide

Various particles with sizes between 100 and 200 μm were encapsulated with waxes commonly used in technical coating applications. For this, a homogeneous mixture of molten paraffin and supercritical carbon dioxide was prepared in an autoclave and injected into the high-pressure fluidized bed through a nozzle from the bottom. Due to the different conditions in the mixing autoclave and the fluidized bed, the paraffin precipitated in the vicinity of the nozzle and adhered to the solid particles. A complete, thin, uniform, and solvent-free coating was produced. The use of two paraffins with different alkane compositions resulted in dissimilar spreads on glass beads due to their different glass transition temperatures. A smaller pressure drop across the nozzle led to more uniform and even coatings. Glass beads, ceramic spheres, potassium chloride, and lactose showed similar coating results, whereas different morphologies were observed with a plastic material, characterized by a rougher surface and a lower surface energy. The high quality of the coating was confirmed by standard dissolution tests with coated potassium chloride crystals and lactose agglomerates.     

Probabilistic Marching Cubes

In this paper we revisit the computation and visualization of equivalents to isocontours in uncertain scalar fields. We model uncertainty by discrete random fields and, in contrast to previous methods, also take arbitrary spatial correlations into account. Starting with joint distributions of the random variables associated to the sample locations, we compute level crossing probabilities for cells of the sample grid. This corresponds to computing the probabilities that the well‐known symmetry‐reduced marching cubes cases occur in random field realizations. For Gaussian random fields, only marginal density functions that correspond to the vertices of the considered cell need to be integrated. We compute the integrals for each cell in the sample grid using a Monte Carlo method. The probabilistic ansatz does not suffer from degenerate cases that usually require case distinctions and solutions of ill‐conditioned problems. Applications in 2D and 3D, both to synthetic and real data from ensemble simulations in climate research, illustrate the influence of spatial correlations on the spatial distribution of uncertain isocontours.