Evidences of sensitization mechanism for PbSe thin films photoconductor

Over the past decades, sensitization has been considered as a key process that determined the performance of lead selenide (PbSe) photoconductive detectors. However, insufficiency of evidences about the changes on material properties and structure in micro level becomes a barrier on comprehensive explanation of the sensitization mechanism. In this work, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Xray diffraction (XRD) technologies were employed to characterize the materials properties evolution process of PbSe during sensitization. Changes on microstructure was identified in details by high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM). Accordingly, we provided a profile of the sensitization mechanism in micro level. With these evidences, significant impacts on the photoconductive performances of PbSe could be well explained via the charge separation model. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.