Lead sulfide; a new candidate for optoelectronics applications in the ultra violet spectral range

Abstract

Lead Sulfide with cubic lattice structure is an important narrow band gap semiconductor with excellent optical and electrical properties which has broad potential applications in the optoelectronics devices. In this paper optical and electrical properties of Lead Sulfide are studied using Density Function Theory method. Mulliken population analysis as well as ELF calculations show ionic bond between lead and sulfide in the PbS. An HSE06 hybrid functional is implied in simulation to determine band structure and surface density which shows a narrow band gap of 0.37 eV for Lead Sulfide. Moreover, effect of each energy level on the density of state is studied. Our analysis shows that 6p level of Lead has significant impact on the density of state of Lead Sulfide. Optical properties of Lead Sulfide for radiation power up to 40 eV in a unit cell are calculated. However Lead sulfide has been extensively used in the optoelectronic devices working in infrared range, we showed that lead sulfide can be also a good candidate semiconductor for photoconductive devices in ultraviolet.