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Study of the quasi-single crystalline lead sulfide film deposited by magnetron sputtering and its infrared detecting characteristics

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Abstract

Lead sulfide (PbS) detectors have the advantages of room temperature detection, high sensitivity and wide spectral application range in short-wave infrared detection (1–3 μm). Magnetron sputtering with the advantages of few impurities and precise control of film structure, compared with other preparation of PbS thin films, is a potential method to deposit PbS thin films. Silicon-based PbS heterojunction devices provide a promising architecture for infrared detection due to their CMOS process compatibility. However, there are few reports on quasi-single crystal PbS prepared by magnetron sputter and silicon-based heterojunction infrared detector based on sputtered PbS. Herein, we investigated the preparation of PbS thin films by magnetron sputtering at room temperature, studied the effect of process parameters and post-annealing conditions on the crystalline orientation and growth mechanism of PbS thin films, analyzed the surface topography, crystal structure, crystalline size and optical characteristics of films, and obtained the quasi-crystalline (200) orientated PbS films. We designed and fabricated a p-Si/n-PbS heterojunction infrared detector based on sputtered PbS films using optimized sputtering parameters and post-annealing conditions. The p-Si/n-PbS heterojunction infrared detector exhibited a high rectification ratio up to 104, photo responsivity of 0.763 mA/W and detectivity of 6.07 × 1010 cm Hz1/2/W.

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Acknowledgements

Thank Dr. Yishuo Hu for a useful discussion of film growth and Dr. Wenzhao Wang for a helpful discussion of crystal orientation. The authors thank the Dr. Zhu of the Flexible Electronics Manufacturing Laboratory in Experiment Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Dr. Yan of the Technology in School of Mechanical Science & Engineering of HUST for carrying out the thermal evaporation, and the Analytical and Testing Center of HUST for providing XPS, UV and AFM measurements. The authors also acknowledge Dr. Zhang for the facility support of the Center for Nanoscale Characterization & Devices (CNCD), WNLO of HUST.

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  1. School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, 430074, People’s Republic of China

    Yonghong Xiao, Tingwei Xu, Maofa Zhang, Yufei Zhou, Duo Chen, Xiaoqing Bao & Xiangbin Zeng

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  1. Yonghong Xiao
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  2. Tingwei Xu
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  6. Xiaoqing Bao
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  7. Xiangbin Zeng
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, analysis and manuscript writing were performed by Yonghong Xiao. Tingwei Xu and Maofa Zhang also performed the material preparation. Duo chen measured the XRD and AFM measurements. Yufei Zhou helped designing the devices. Xiaoqing Bao helped the Hall measurement. Xiangbin Zeng supervised the design of experiments and the writing of manuscript. And all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xiangbin Zeng.

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Xiao, Y., Xu, T., Zhang, M. et al. Study of the quasi-single crystalline lead sulfide film deposited by magnetron sputtering and its infrared detecting characteristics. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 33, 16029–16044 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-022-08494-1

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