Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Department of Physics, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, P.O Box 190-50100, Kakamega, Kenya
2 Department of Physics, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, P.O Box 190-50100, Kakamega, Kenya. Materials Research Society of Kenya, P.O. Box 15653-00503 Nairobi, Kenya.
Abstract
Copper antimony sulphide (CuSbS2) is a semiconductor with narrow band gap and a potential absorber material for applications in various optoelectronic devices like infrared detectors and solar cells. In this paper, CuSbS2 thin films were deposited by spray pyrolysis technique on glass substrates at a temperature of 3000 ℃, using cupric chloride, antimony chloride, and thiourea as precursors. The samples were prepared by varying the antimony concentration (0.1M, 0.15M, and 0.2M) at a pressure of 3.5 bar and a solution flow rate of 2 ml/min for 5 minutes, while the precursor solutions of Cu:S molar ratio (0.1:0.2) was maintained. Elemental, morphological, optical, and structural characterization of these films was done from data obtained from energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF), UV-VIS spectrophotometer, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-Ray diffraction (XRD) respectively. The prepared thin films were polycrystalline with a preferential peak at (111). Electrical properties of the thin films were obtained by simulating the UV-VIS spectra in SCOUT software using the Drude and Kim oscillator model. Deposited films have a band gap range of 1.84 – 1.98 eV, conductivity range of 199.59 – 204.67 Ω-1cm-1, and carrier concentration range of 1.12×1019 - 1.27×1019 cm-3.
Keywords
Main Subjects
- S Suehiro, et al., Inorganic Chemistry 54, 16 (2015) 7840.
- S Thiruvenkadam and A L Rajesh, International Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research 3 (2014) 38.
- T Rath, et al., Journal of Materials Chemistry A 3, 47 (2015) 24155.
- S A Manolache and A Duta, Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials 9, 10 (2007) 3219.
- F W de Souza Lucas, et al., The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 120, 33 (2016) 18377.
- Y Rodrıguez Lazcano, M T S Nair, and P K Nair, Journal of Crystal Growth 223, 3 (2001) 399.
- A Rabhi, M Kanzari, and B Rezig, Materials Letters 62, 20 (2008) 3576.
- A Rabhi, M Kanzari, and B Rezig, Thin Solid Films 517, 7 (2009) 2477.
- J A Ramos Aquino, et al., Physica Status Solidi (c) 13, 1 (2016) 24.
- Sh Banu, et al., Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 151 (2016) 14.
- W Septina, et al., Thin Solid Films 550 (2014) 700.
- R Suriakarthick, et al., Journal of Alloys and Compounds 651 (2015) 423.
- L Wan, et al., Journal of Alloys and Compounds 680 (2016) 182.
- B Krishnan, S Shaji, and R Ernesto Ornelas, Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics 26, 7 (2015) 4770.
- S Manolache, et al., Thin Solid Films 515, 15 (2007) 5957.
- A I Onyia, Journal of Non-Oxide Glasses 8, 4 (2017) 99.
- V Vinayakumar, et al., RSC Advances 8, 54 (2018) 31055.
- A C Rastogi and N. R. Janardhana, Thin Solid Films 565 (2014) 285.
- D Colombara, et al., Thin Solid Films 519, 21 (2011) 7438.
- T Manimozhi, et al., Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing 103 (2019) 104606.
- A W Welch, et al., Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 132 (2015) 499.
- W Thesis, “Scout Thin Film Analysis Software Handbook, Hard- and Software”, Aachen Germany (2001)
- B Ingham and M F Toney, “Metallic Films for Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Applications” Woodhead Publishing (2014).
- T Moriyama, et al., Rigaku Journal 29, 2 (2013) 27.
- C G Granqvist, “Handbook of inorganic electrochromic materials” Elsevier (1995).
- C Garza, et al., Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 95, 8 (2010) 2001.
- M Birkett, et al., APL Materials 6, 8 (2018) 084904.
- M E Edley, et al., Thin Solid Films 646 (2017) 180.