Measurement-Coupled Drift--Diffusion Modeling of MCT Photoconductors: From Internal Transport to Measurable Response

Measurement-Coupled Drift--Diffusion Modeling of MCT Photoconductors: From Internal Transport to Measurable Response | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Measurement-Coupled Drift--Diffusion Modeling of MCT Photoconductors: From Internal Transport to Measurable Response Terence Fisher This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9224665/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 5 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract MCT photoconductors are accessed experimentally through measurable quantities such as dark resistance, lock-in response, bandwidth, and noise, not through their full internal carrier and field distributions. Those observables are compressed projections of a distributed transport state, so their interpretation is generally non-unique. This problem is especially acute in MCT, where dark conductivity, transport carrier density, mobility, compensation, surface loss, parasitic loading, and recombination dynamics can all be strongly coupled. This work presents a measurement-coupled drift--diffusion formulation that maps distributed transport state to measurable observables through an explicit measurement operator. The implementation combines linear and nonlinear Poisson electrostatics, Boltzmann mobile-carrier feedback, stabilized continuity equations, a two-carrier photoconductor forward model, and an identifiability-aware inversion layer. Within the present implementation, the code supports finite-element formulations, nondimensionalization, solver guardrails, manufactured-solution verification for electrostatics, Jacobian consistency checks, transport and observability diagnostics, a representative illuminated operating point, a nonzero frequency-domain photoresponse, and a rank-aware synthetic inversion result. Representative results include an internally consistent dark-state operating point with Rterm=123.82Ohms, an illuminated operating point with Rterm=37.72Ohms, a recombination-limited pole near 159.2kHz with a single-pole estimate error of 9.3%, and inversion auto-reduction from a four-parameter candidate set to a single identifiable active parameter. These results show that device measurements in MCT photoconductors cannot be interpreted reliably without explicit coupling between transport physics, measurement mapping, and observability structure. Experimental predictive validation against measured MCT detector datasets has not yet been completed and is not claimed here. The present contribution is therefore a measurement-coupled and observability-aware modeling workflow that links transport physics, measured response, and parameter identifiability in a form suitable for later benchmarked comparison with experiment. MCT photoconductors mercury cadmium telluride photoconductors HeCdTe photoconductors Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviewers agreed at journal 22 Apr, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 20 Apr, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 26 Mar, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 26 Mar, 2026 First submitted to journal 25 Mar, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9224665","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":627984839,"identity":"cc5a1d14-1d84-4140-812b-cb36086d54a7","order_by":0,"name":"Terence Fisher","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABDElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBADOQMgwdgAJAzAfAPcSnmgtDGSFmbitCRuQNWCB9iz9z58XFBjk75d+vDBhzP+MOSZs/cffFxQYGfPwH746AZstvAcNzaecSwtd2dfWrLhxjaGYsuew8zGMwySExt40tJuYNMikcYmzdtwOHfDGR4zyYcN/xM33Ehmk+YxOJDAIMFjhlWL/DP237wN/9MNQFoe/GGAa7HHqUWCjY2Zt+FAAljLBjaEFsYGXFrOpDFL8xxLNtzZw5ZsOBPoF4Mzh42NeYB+acPhF/b2Y4yfeWrs5M15mA8+7AGGmMHxxoePef7Y2fOzHz6GTQsGSICz2IhRjqplFIyCUTAKRgEUAACUslvoWm8HIgAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Brooks Photonics","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Terence","middleName":"","lastName":"Fisher","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-03-25 14:55:07","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9224665/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9224665/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":108007207,"identity":"5fedc172-5ff6-4ea9-b0ec-d7b6e612a2a6","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-28 12:58:54","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":267092,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"MeasurementCoupledDriftDiffusionModelingofHgCdTePhotoconductorsFromInternalTransporttoMeasurableResponse.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9224665/v1_covered_5f32e9a7-dc0e-4fe9-bd3f-895810e6c14d.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Measurement-Coupled Drift--Diffusion Modeling of MCT Photoconductors: From Internal Transport to Measurable Response","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"journal-of-computational-electronics","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"jcel","sideBox":"Learn more about [Journal of Computational Electronics](https://www.springer.com/journal/10825)","snPcode":"10825","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/10825/3","title":"Journal of Computational Electronics","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"MCT photoconductors, mercury cadmium telluride photoconductors, HeCdTe photoconductors ","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9224665/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9224665/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"MCT photoconductors are accessed experimentally through measurable quantities such as dark resistance, lock-in response, bandwidth, and noise, not through their full internal carrier and field distributions. Those observables are compressed projections of a distributed transport state, so their interpretation is generally non-unique. This problem is especially acute in MCT, where dark conductivity, transport carrier density, mobility, compensation, surface loss, parasitic loading, and recombination dynamics can all be strongly coupled. This work presents a measurement-coupled drift--diffusion formulation that maps distributed transport state to measurable observables through an explicit measurement operator. The implementation combines linear and nonlinear Poisson electrostatics, Boltzmann mobile-carrier feedback, stabilized continuity equations, a two-carrier photoconductor forward model, and an identifiability-aware inversion layer. 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Experimental predictive validation against measured MCT detector datasets has not yet been completed and is not claimed here. 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