Structural and temperature-tuned band gap energy characteristics of PbMoO₄ single crystals

Abstract

PbMoO4 is one of the member of the molybdate materials and has been a significant research interest due to its photocatalytic and optoelectronic applications. In the present paper, the structural and optical properties of PbMoO4 single crystals grown by Czochralski technique were investigated. X-ray diffraction pattern presented well-defined and intensive peaks associated with tetragonal scheelite structure. Energy dispersive spectroscopy analyses presented the atomic compositional ratio of constituent elements as consistent with chemical formula of PbMoO4. Raman and infrared transmittance spectra were reported to give information about the vibrational characteristics of the compound. Room temperature transmission spectrum was analyzed by derivative spectroscopy technique and band gap energy was found as 3.07 eV. Temperature-tuned band gap energy characteristics of the single crystal were investigated by performing transmission measurements at different temperatures between 10 and 300 K. The analyses indicated that band gap energy of the PbMoO4 single crystal increases to 3.24 eV when the temperature was decreased to 10 K. Temperature-band gap energy dependency was studied considering Varshni and Bose-Einstein models. The successful fitting processes under the light of applied models presented various optical parameters like absolute zero band gap energy, variation rate of band gap with temperature and Debye temperature.