Optical and structural studies on spray deposited \alpha-PbO thin films

Thin films of tetragonal lead monoxide have been prepared from spray pyrolytic decomposition of an aqueous solution of lead nitrate. The spray pyrolysis set-up developed for this study is also described briefly. From the structural investigations it has been found that the films generally grow with some admixture of monoclinic $PbO_{1.57}$ phase. The absorption coefficients of the films have been determined from transmittance measurements in the 400–1200 nm region. From an analysis of the room temperature optical absorption data, a direct transition band gap of 1.9 eV has been obtained for \alpha-PbO