Intra-Pixel Response Characterization of a HgCdTe Near Infrared Detector with a Pronounced Crosshatch Pattern

The “crosshatch” pattern is a recurring “feature” of HgCdTe arrays, specifically the Teledyne HAWAII family of near infrared detectors. It is a fixed pattern of high frequency QE variations along 3 directions generally thought to be related to the crystal structure of HgCdTe. The pattern is evident in detectors used in WFC3/IR, WISE, JWST, and in candidate detectors for Euclid and WFIRST. Using undersampled point sources projected onto a HAWAII-2RG detector, we show that the pattern induces photometric variations that are not removed by a flat-field calibration, thus demonstrating that the QE variations occur on scales smaller than the 18 micron pixels. Our testbed is the Precision Projector Laboratory’s astronomical scene generator, which can rapidly characterize the full detector by scanning thousands of undersampled spots. If not properly calibrated, detectors showing strong crosshatch may induce correlated errors in photometry, astrometry, spectroscopy, and shape measurements.