Journal of Applied Physics

p. 7219-7224The electronic properties and the optical absorption of lead iodide (PbI2) have been investigated experimentally by means of optical absorption and spectroscopic ellipsometry, and theoretically by a full-potential linear muffin-tin-orbital method. PbI2 has been recognized as a very promising detector material with a large technological applicability. Its band-gap energy as a function of temperature has also been measured by optical absorption. The temperature dependence has been fitted by two different relations, and a discussion of these fittings is given