Optical and structural properties of PbSIn3+ nanocrystals grown by chemical bath

Abstract Herein, the growth of PbS doped systematically with solutions containing In 3 + ions by using chemical bath as a green approach is reported, with the aim of studying the effects of such In 3 + -doping on the morphological, structural and some optical properties of the PbS thin films obtained. The morphological changes of the films were followed by Atomic Force Microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy. X-ray diffraction studies showed growth in all films of the zinc blende phase. The grain size was found to be ~ 32 nm and ~ 24–14 nm for the undoped and doped samples, respectively. The absorbance results in doped films showed excitonic peaks at ~ 1.6 eV, ~ 1.8 eV, ~ 2.2 eV, owing to higher energy transitions from 1 D h → 1 De, 2 S h → 2 S h and 2 P h → 2 P e , states, respectively. By optical absorption, a shift for the band gap energy was observed from ~ 1.45 eV to ~ 2.18–2.3 eV range for the undoped and doped films, respectively. Gibbs energy calculation for the In 3 + doping PbS process was also examined.