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Mid-infrared (mid-IR) gas sensing technology has been widely received as a competitive choice for the newly emerging internet-of-things (IoTs) applications mainly due to its high sensitivity, selectivity and reliability. However, high cost and chip-integration challenges, on the contrary, still limits their potential development. Lead-salt materials are proposed to offer possible solutions to address these issues, and our previous works have demonstrated their outstanding photon generation and detection capabilities in the MIR region. In this work, towards the low-cost point, we demonstrate some preliminary experimental results for preparing lead-salt based high quality active MIR photonic materials. Using a modified oriented-attachment synthesis method, for the first time, PbSe films grown on amorphous glass substrates in the wet chemical process, presented a highly smooth surface having an uniformed crystal orientation in (111) direction. Further, their nanocrystal size can also be tailored to allow a broad range control of emission wavelength from 3.3 μm to 4.2 μm owing to the unique quantum size effects. In conclusion, this new material growth exploration opens a possible cost-effective path to conduct active photonic waveguide engineering to manipulate light-and-matter interactions in the MIR range for potential chip-integrated sensing applications (e.g., IoTs).
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