This photoconductivity forms the basis for infrared detectivity. We are principally interested in characterizing these materials, calculating their electron mobility, and analyzing the properties of their defects.
Higher mobility means higher photoconductivity and, hence, better detectivity.
Understanding defects, and analyzing results from scanning tunneling spectroscopy allows us to help characterize the crystals as grown by various methods. The applications of infrared detection are many. Military needs include detecting the plume of ballistic missiles and detecting the differences in heat radiation for use in night vision. Here MZT may have an advantage over MCT since it is stabler with regard to retaining mercury. For many years, we have also done theoretical research on magnetic materials.