Room-temperature nanostructured PbSe/CdSe mid-infrared photodetector: Annealing effects

Room-temperature (RT) photoconductor using mid-wave infrared (MWIR) nanostructured lead selenide (PbSe)/cadmium selenide (CdSe) is presented on a commercially available silicon dioxide on silicon (100) (SiO2/Si) wafer. This device is fabricated through vapor phase deposition (VPD) and subsequently annealed in oxygen to create interconnected nanostructures, which establish efficient pathways for photogenerated carriers and passivate defects within the material. RT specific detectivity (D*) of 8.57 × 108 Jones and a peak D* of 2.49 × 109 Jones are achieved with interband cut-off wavelength of 4 μm. Additionally, the utilization of nanostructured thin film deposition on cost-effective SiO2/Si(100) substrates via the affordable VPD method significantly reduces production costs and facilitates the potential of monolithic integration with Si-based readout integrated circuitry enabling low-cost large-scale production.