Superior performances from fabricated microstructures on MBE-grown IV-VI lead salt materials for mid-infrared applications

A detailed study on microstructures in the form of pillars, rods and tubes based on IV-VI lead salt semiconductor structures grown in molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) was described. Several essential fabrication parameters that controlled the morphological aspects of those microstructures were clearly visualized. Tremendous enhancement of pulsed photoluminescence (PL) intensity was achieved from a single microrod or microtube compared to their bulk samples. The micropillar sample, having free-standing pillar diameter of 5 mum with an inter-pillar distance of 8 mum, showed a consistent temperature tunability of _~3.64 cm^-1/⁰K of the pulsed PL emission peaks. All those novel results dictated a promising future of lead-salt based mid-infrared opto-electronics implemented mainly in the field of industrial trace gas-sensing.