Structure, conductivity and Hall effect study of solution grown Pb1-xFexS nanoparticle films

Nanoparticle films of ternary Pb1-xFexS alloys were grown on glass and quartz substrates using a chemical bath deposition technique. Critical control of pH, temperature and dilution of the chemical bath was necessary for growth of the nanoparticle films. The ternary films were observed to grow as single phase with a lattice identical to that of PbS. Analysis of temperature-dependent dc conductivity data suggests variable-range hopping to be the conduction mechanism. Room-temperature Hall mobility of the films is found to increase with an increase in x and has a temperature dependence of mu proportional to T-0.4 which suggests predominant surface scattering. Majority carriers were found to be holes in the 0.25 less than or equal to x less than or equal to 0.50 films and electrons in the x = 0.66 and 0.75 films.