Product Name: Lead Sulfide Powder                    

Lead Sulfide Description

Although of little commercial value, PbS is one of the oldest and most common detection element materials in various infrared detectors.

As an infrared detector, PbS functions as a photon detector, responding directly to the photons of radiation, as opposed to thermal detectors, which respond to a change in detector element temperature caused by the radiation.

Lead Sulfide Powder used to measure radiation in either of two ways: by measuring the tiny photocurrent the photons cause when they hit the PbS material, or by measuring the change in the material's electrical resistance that the photons cause. Lead Sulfide Powder Measuring the resistance change is the more commonly used method.

At room temperature, PbS is sensitive to radiation at wavelengths between approximately 1 and 2.5 μm. This range corresponds to the shorter wavelengths in the infra-red portion of the spectrum,

The so-called short-wavelength infrared (SWIR). Only very hot objects emit radiation in these wavelengths.

Cooling the PbS elements, for example, using liquid nitrogen or a Peltier element system,

shifts its sensitivity range to between approximately 2 and 4 μm. Objects that emit radiation in these wavelengths still have to be quite hot several hundred degrees Celsius but not as hot as those detectable by uncooled sensors.

Other compounds used for this purpose include indium antimonide (InSb) and mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe), which have somewhat better properties for detecting the longer IR wavelengths.)

The high dielectric constant of Lead Sulfide Powder to relatively slow detectors (compared to silicon, germanium, InSb, or HgCdTe).

Lead Sulfide Related Information