Resonant-cavity-enhanced HgCdTe structures have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy, and photoconductors have been modelled and fabricated based on these structures. Responsivity has been measured and shows a peak responsivity of 8 x 10(4) V/W for a 50 x 50 mu m 2 photoconductor at a temperature of 200 K. The measured responsivity shows some agreement with the modelled responsivity across the mid-wave infrared window (3-5 mu m). The measured responsivity is limited by surface recombination, which limits the effective lifetime to approximate to 15 ns. The optical cut-off of the detector varies with temperature as modelled from 5.1 ltm at 80 K to 4.4 mu m at 250 K. There is strong agreement between modelled peak responsivity and measured peak responsivity with varying temperature from 80 to 300 K. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.