Recent progress of infrared photodetectors based on lead chalcogenide colloidal quantum dots

Commercial photodetectors based on silicon are extensively applied in numerous fields. Except for their high performance, their maximum absorption wavelength is not over than 1100 nm and incident light with longer wavelengths cannot be detected; in addition, their cost is high and their manufacturing process is complex. Therefore, it is meaningful and significant to extend absorption wavelength, to decrease cost, and to simplify the manufacturing process while maintaining high performance for photodetectors. Due to the properties of size-dependent bandgap tunability, low cost, facile processing, and substrate compatibility, solution-processed colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) have recently gained significant attention and become one of the most competitive and promising candidates for optoelectronic devices. Among these CQDs, lead chalcogenide CQDs are getting very prominent and are widely investigated. In this paper, the recent progress of infrared (IR) photodetectors based on lead sulfide (PbS), lead selenide (PbSe), and ternary PbS_xSe_1-x CQDs, and their underlying concepts, breakthroughs, and remaining challenges are reviewed, thus providing guidance for designing high-performance quantum-dot IR photodetectors.