Photoresponsive Retina (The Chemical Deposition of PbSe)

The object of this program was to research economical methods for the preparation of high-performance lead selenide layers by chemical deposition from aqueous solutions and to demonstrate the feasibility of their fabrication into multi-element arrays for use in thermal night vision systems. Prior to this work, a fully detailed sequence of process steps for the deposition and fabrication of lead selenide devices had been published in only a few instances. Regrettably, in most of these cases, the performance characteristics of the obtained layers were not presented. It was felt that an investigation of the chemical deposition process for lead selenide and a detailed report of the results including all process steps and subsequent electrical and optical characteristics were necessary to stimulate additional research in this area and reduce the cost of these systems. The results of this investigation indicate that high-quality lead selenide layers, which can be fabricated into high-performance devices, can be obtained by a relatively economical process.