The electronic properties and the optical absorption of lead iodide (PbI 2 ) have been investigated experimentally by means of optical absorption and spectroscopic ellipsometry, and theoretically by a full-potential linear muffin-tin-orbital method. PbI 2 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.

The optical bandgap energy of lead iodide PbI2, grown by Bridgman’s method, is obtained by photoacoustic spectroscopy. Due to its potential applications, as a room temperature, semiconductor material detector, which may be used as a photocell, or as a x- and γ-ray radiation detector, the physical properties of PbI2 have attracted much attention. We computed, by different methods the bandgap energy. We found the energy in a range 2.301±0.038⩽〈Eg〉⩽2.359±0.037 eV.

Due to fundamental interest and potential applications in quantum computation, tremendous efforts have been invested to study topological superconductivity. However, bulk topological superconductivity seems to be difficult to realize and its mechanism is still elusive. Several possible routes to induce topological superconductivity have been proposed, including proximity efforts, doping or pressurizing a topological insulator or semimetal. Among them, the pressurizing is considered to be a "clean" way to tune the electronic structures. Here we report the discovery of a pressure-induced topological and superconducting phase of SnSe, a material which is highly focused recently due to its superior thermoelectric properties. In situ highpressure electrical transport and synchrotron X-ray diffraction measurements show that the superconductivity emerges along with the formation of a CsCl-type structural symmetry of SnSe above around 27 GPa, with a maximum critical temperature of 3.2 K at 39 GPa. Based on ab initio calculations, this CsCl-type SnSe is predicted to be a Dirac line nodes (DLN) semimetal in the absence of spin-orbit coupling, whose DLN states are protected by the coexistence of timereversal and inversion symmetries. These results make CsCl-type SnSe an interesting model platform with simple crystal symmetry to study the interplay of topological physics and superconductivity.