Lead Telluride Through Transformation of Plumbonacrite in Tellurium Atmosphere and Its Behavior as Part of PbTe–Si Photodiode

Plumbonacrite [Pb
₁₀
(CO
₃
)
₆
O(OH)
₆₀
] is a versatile material, which can be deposited by a simple solution process and transformed into lead chalcogenides by thermal substitution. This paper is focused on the plumbonacrite film synthesis by photo chemical bath deposition over silicon substrate, its transformation into lead telluride by a thermal substitution reaction using hot tellurium gas and the study of the heterojunction formed between PbTe p-type/Si n-type. The PbTe-p/Si-n device assembled with plumbonacrite and placed under tellurium gas shows the characteristics that can be obtained by direct PbTe synthesis. The photodiode produced by this two-step method shows a photoresponsivity of 0.1 A/W.