Growth by the facile vertical Bridgman method and optoelectronic properties of one-inch PbI2 crystal

Lead iodide (PbI2) single crystal is a promising semiconductor radiation detection material at room temperature. In this paper, one-inch PbI2 single crystal with the size of Φ25 mm × 60 mm has been successfully grown by the facile vertical Bridgman method, and SEM, XRD, UV–vis, Raman analyses were performed on the (0 0 1) plane. The Au-PbI2-Au Schottky structured PbI2 single crystal X-ray photodetector was prepared by magnetron sputtering method. The photodetector has a fast, repeatable and stable response to X-ray incident light with reasonable response time of the short rising and decay times, which were 0.112 and 0.331 s, respectively. We further illustrate the operation of the photodetector under different bias voltages and X-ray irradiation, confirming that PbI2 crystal is a promising photodetection material.