Fabrication and characterization of La doped PbI2 nanostructured thin films for opto-electronic applications

Herein, we report a facile, cost-effective, solution processed fabrication method for pure and lanthanum (La3+) doped lead iodide (PbI2) thin films and investigated structural, optical, dielectric and electrical properties. Synthesis of PbI2 was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and FT-Raman spectroscopy analyses. The fabricated films were grown along (001) plane, with crystallite size in the range of 12-14 nm and observed that crystallinity increases and defects decreases with the increase of La doping concentration. The morphology of fabricated films was observed to be spherical nanoparticles assembled nanosheets, distributed uniformly throughout the films. Moreover, homogeneous La doping in PbI2 was seen via EDX elemental mapping image. Optical band gap was calculated from Ultra violet-visible-near infrared (UV-Vis-NIR) spectra. The band gap of pure PbI2 film was noticed similar to 2.44 eV which increase to 2.63 eV for 3% La3+ doped film. Absorption index, refractive index and dielectric constant values were calculated from optical data and found to be strongly dependent on incident photon energy and all parameters show higher values for La doped PbI2 films. I-V characteristics of pure and La-doped PbI2 thin films were carried out in the device configuration viz. FTO/Pbt(2) (or La-doped PbI2)/Au at room temperature. I-V curve for the pure PbI2 films shows the ohmic behavior while La doped PbI2 films shows non ohmic behavior attributed to space charge limited current. The electrical resistivity values for pure PbI2 film is found to be very high about 1.8 x 10(11) Omega-cm.