View source for C. Thomas Elliott

{{short description|British physicist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2019}}
'''Charles Thomas Elliott''' (known as '''Tom Elliott'''), {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CBE|FRS}} (born 16 January 1939),<ref>[https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/officers/ELsPVJjaPicfzfymfDB8aRYWHSE/appointments Companies House]</ref> is a scientist in the fields of [[narrow gap semiconductor]] and [[infrared detector]] research.

==Early life==
Hailing from [[County Durham]], he attended [[Washington School, Sunderland|Washington Grammar Technical School]].  After gaining his Ph.D. he worked at the [[Victoria University of Manchester|University of Manchester]]

==Career==
He joined [[Royal Radar Establishment|RRE]] in [[Malvern, Worcestershire]] in the late 1960s. In the 1970s he invented the [[SPRITE infrared detector|SPRITE detector]] (Signal PRocessing In The Element) which was also known as the TED (Tom Elliott's Detector). This was a [[photoconductor]] device in which the [[infrared]] scene was scanned across the detector (made from [[HgCdTe]]) at the same rate as the carriers drifted under an applied controlled constant bias current. This device became part of TICM - the standard UK [[thermal imaging]] common module used since the 1980s by [[UK armed forces]]. Tom Elliott received a Rank Prize in 1982 for this work and was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] in 1988. He was appointed [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire|CBE]] in the [[1994 Birthday Honours]].<ref>{{London Gazette |date=10 June 1994 |supp=y |issue=53696 |page=9 }}</ref>

He won the [[Clifford Paterson Medal and Prize]] in 1997.

Tom Elliott also contributed to the development of the semiconductor [[indium antimonide]] (InSb) as an infrared detector, [[magnetic sensor]] and fast, low voltage [[transistor]] material. He was involved in the exploitation of [[Negative Luminescence|negative luminescence]] in [[diode]] structures.

He retired from the successor to RRE, [[Defence Evaluation and Research Agency|DERA]] in 1999 and is an honorary professor at [[Heriot-Watt University]].

==Personal life==
A conference centre at DERA Malvern (by 2007 [[QinetiQ]]) was named 'The Tom Elliott Centre' in his honour when opened by the Princess Royal in 2007. He lives in Malvern.

==Bibliography==
* Infrared Detectors and Emitters: Materials and Devices, edited by Peter Capper and C T Elliott,  Springer (2000) {{ISBN|0-7923-7206-9}} 
* An infrared detector with integrated signal processing, C. T. Elliott, Electron Devices Meeting, 1982 International, Vol. 28 Page(s): 132 - 135 (1982) [https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1482766/]
* Uncooled InSb/In<sub>1–x</sub>Al<sub>x</sub>Sb mid-infrared emitter, T. Ashley, C. T. Elliott, N. T. Gordon, R. S. Hall, A. D. Johnson, and G. J. Pryce, Applied Physics Letters Vol. 64, Iss. 18, pp.&nbsp;2433-2435 (1994) {{doi|10.1063/1.111981}}
* Negative luminescence and its applications, C. T. Elliott, Philosophical Transactions: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 359, Number 1780 pp.&nbsp;567 - 579 (2001) {{doi|10.1098/rsta.2000.0743}}

==See also==
* [[SPRITE infrared detector]]
* [[Negative luminescence]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110524015454/http://www.qinetiq.com/home/newsroom/news_releases_homepage/2007/2nd_quarter/princess_royal_opens.html QinetiQ conference centre opening 2007]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elliott, C. Thomas}}
[[Category:1939 births]]
[[Category:Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:English inventors|Elliot, C. T.]]
[[Category:English physicists]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:People from Malvern, Worcestershire]]
[[Category:Scientists from County Durham]]
[[Category:Semiconductor physicists]]
[[Category:Living people]]