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We introduce a charge separation model in this work to explain the mechanism of enhanced photoconductivity of polycrystalline lead salt photoconductors. Our results show that this model could clarify the heuristic fabrication processes of such lead salt detectors that were not well understood and often considered mysterious for nearly a century. The improved lifetime and performance of the device, e.g., responsivity, are attributed to the spatial separation of holes and electrons, hence less possibility of carrier recombination. This model shows that in addition to crystal quality the size of crystallites, the depth of outer conversion layer, and doping concentration could all affect detector performance. The simulation results agree well with experimental results and thus offer a very useful tool for further improvement of lead salt detectors. The model was developed with lead salt family of photoconductors in mind, but may well be applicable to a wider class of semiconducting films.

For nearly a century, oxygen has been widely accepted as the key element that triggers photo-response in polycrystalline PbSe photoconductive detectors. Our photoluminescence and responsivity studies on PbSe samples, however, suggest that oxygen only serves as an effective sensitization improver and it is iodine rather than oxygen that plays the key role in triggering the photo-response. These studies shed light on the sensitization process for detector applications and ways to passivate defects in IV–VI semiconductors. As a result, high peak detectivity of 2.8 × 1010 cm·Hz1/2·W−1 was achieved at room temperature.

Characterization of a IV-VI semiconductor structure consisting of a PbSe/PbSrSe multiple quantum well (MQW) active region between distributed Bragg reflectors grown by molecular beam epitaxy on a Si(111) substrate is described. Pulsed photoluminescence (PL) spectra exhibited interband electronic transition energies ranging linearly with temperature from 231.4 meV at 150 K to 299.4 meV at 300 K, while continuous wave (cw) PL spectra exhibited only the vertical optical cavity mode with emission varying between 299.2 meV at 150 K to 301.1 meV at 300 K. A maximum PL emission power of approximately 1.8 mW was obtained for cw diode laser pumping when the heat sink temperature was 200 K. Data are consistent with a localized epilayer heating effect of about 100 deg where the interband electronic transition energy is coincident with the vertical optical cavity mode. In spite of significant sample heating and associated thermal expansion mismatch stress, cw PL emission intensity was stable with no noticeable degrad...