Lead(II) telluride
Encyclopedia
Lead telluride is a compound of lead and tellurium (PbTe); it is a narrow gap semiconductor
. It occurs naturally as the mineral altaite
.
material. It also has good performance as a thermoelectric material, partly due to a low thermal conductivity
.
Narrow gap semiconductor
Narrow gap semiconductors are semiconducting materials with a band gap that is comparatively small compared to silicon. They are used as infrared detectors or thermoelectrics.-List of Narrow gap semiconductors:*HgCdTe*PbSe*PbS*PbTe*InAs*InSb*Cd3As2...
. It occurs naturally as the mineral altaite
Altaite
Altaite, or lead telluride, is a yellowish white mineral with an isometric crystal structure. Altaite is in the galena group of minerals as it shares many of properties of galena. Altaite has an unusually high density for a light-colored mineral...
.
Properties
- Dielectric constantDielectric constantThe relative permittivity of a material under given conditions reflects the extent to which it concentrates electrostatic lines of flux. In technical terms, it is the ratio of the amount of electrical energy stored in a material by an applied voltage, relative to that stored in a vacuum...
~1000. - Electron Effective massEffective massIn solid state physics, a particle's effective mass is the mass it seems to carry in the semiclassical model of transport in a crystal. It can be shown that electrons and holes in a crystal respond to electric and magnetic fields almost as if they were particles with a mass dependence in their...
~ 0.01meElectron rest massThe electron rest mass is the mass of a stationary electron. It is one of the fundamental constants of physics, and is also very important in chemistry because of its relation to the Avogadro constant... - Hole mobility, μp = 600 cm2 V−1 s−1 (0 K); 4000 cm2 V−1 s−1 (300 K)
Applications
It is often alloyed with tin to make lead tin telluride, which is used as an infrared detectorInfrared detector
An infrared detector is a photodetector that reacts to infrared radiation. The two main types of detectors are thermal and photonic.The thermal effects of the incident IR radiation can be followed through many temperature dependent phenomena....
material. It also has good performance as a thermoelectric material, partly due to a low thermal conductivity
Thermal conductivity
In physics, thermal conductivity, k, is the property of a material's ability to conduct heat. It appears primarily in Fourier's Law for heat conduction....
.