Plasma-Chemical Synthesis of Lead Sulphide Thin Films for Near-IR Photodetectors

• DOI: 10.1007/s11090-020-10123-w
• Publication Date: 2020-09-24T05:02:27Z
• Authors: Leonid Mochalov; Alexander Logunov; Igor Prokhorov; Tatyana Sazanova; Aleksey Kudrin; Pavel Yunin; Sergey Zelentsov; Aleksey Letnianchik; Nikolay Starostin; Glenn Boreman; Vladimir Vorotyntsev
• Keywords: 02 engineering and technology; 0210 nano-technology

Lead sulfide (PbS) thin films of different morphology were synthesized via direct interaction of lead and sulfur vapors. Low temperature nonequilibrium RF (40.68 MHz) plasma discharge at low pressure ((3–5) × 10–3 Torr) was used for the initiation of chemical interaction between precursors in the gas phase. The in-situ Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES) was utilized to determine the exited reactive species existing in plasma discharge and possible mechanism of plasma-chemical reactions resulting in the formation of the solid phase. The chemical composition, structure and morphology of the surface of the as-deposited materials in dependence of parameters of the plasma process such as stoichiometry of the precursors in the gas phase, power of the plasma discharge and substrate temperature were characterized by SEM, XRD and AFM analytical techniques. The optical properties and electrophysical parameters of the samples were studied as well.