Cat's-whisker detector

A cat's-whisker detector (sometimes called a crystal detector) is an antique electronic component consisting of a thin wire that lightly touches a crystal of semiconducting mineral (usually galena) to make a crude point-contact rectifier. Developed around 1904 by early radio researchers Henry H. C. Dunwoody, G. W. Pickard and others, this device was used as the detector in early crystal radios, from the early twentieth century through World War II, and gave this type of radio receiver its name. Crystal radios were the most popular type of radio until the mid 1920s. The cat's whisker detector was the first type of semiconductor diode, and in fact, one of the first semiconductor electronic devices (after photoconductors). Cat's whisker detectors are obsolete and are now only used in antique or antique-reproduction radios, and for educational purposes.

Description

The tip of the wire contacting the surface of the crystal formed a crude but unstable point-contact metal–semiconductor junction, forming a Schottky barrier diode. This junction conducts electric current in only one direction and resists current flowing in the other direction. In a crystal radio, its function was to rectify the radio signal, converting it from alternating current to a pulsing direct current, to extract the audio signal (modulation) from the radio frequency carrier wave. The metal whisker is the anode, and the crystal is the cathode; current flows from the whisker into the crystal but not in the other direction.