In this chapter, we first briefly explain the physical principles of the NICMOS detectors. We then report on a number of properties that are important for the scientific performance of NICMOS. Many of these properties are temperature-dependent, and thus have changed significantly from the solid nitrogen era (cycles 7 and 7N). The NICMOS calibration program following the successful installation of NCS has provided a rich data set for the evaluation of detector performance under the NCS. Specifically, we will discuss how various detector parameters such as quantum efficiency, read-noise, and dark current behave under the NCS regime, and what this implies for NICMOS scientific performance. We also discuss a number of detector artifacts like shading, amplifier glow, and others, all of which can be corrected, either in pipeline processing or at the analysis level.
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