Influence of substrate and selenization temperatures on the growth of Cu2SnSe3 films

The effects of substrate temperature and selenization temperature on the structure, composition, electrical and optical properties of Cu₂SnSe₃ films were studied systematically. Cu₂SnSe₃ films deposited at various substrate temperatures (303–573 K) by the flash evaporation method are found to be non-stoichiometric. To compensate the selenium deficiency and obtain a single-phase, an annealing Cu₂SnSe₃ films deposited at 573 K was performed in selenium atmosphere. Cu₂SnSe₃ films deposited at a substrate temperature of 573 K and then selenized at 673 K were single phase and polycrystalline exhibiting monoclinic structure. The films showed p-type conductivity with a direct band gap of 0.84 eV.     

The effect of post-annealing under CdCl<Subscript>2</Subscript> atmosphere on the properties of ITO thin films deposited by DC magnetron sputtering

Indium tin oxide (ITO) films deposited by DC magnetron sputtering were annealed under CdCl₂ atmosphere at different temperatures. The effects of CdCl₂ heat-treatment on the structural, electrical and optical properties of the films were investigated. The X-ray diffraction measurement proves the annealing results in a change of preferred orientation from (400) to (222). It is found the resistivity increases from 1.49 × 10⁻⁴ Ω cm of the as-deposited film to 6.82 × 10⁻⁴ Ω cm of the film annealed at 420 °C. The optical energy gap for the film varies from 3.97 to 3.89 eV. It is also found that the CdCl₂ heat-treatment results in narrowing the energy gap of ITO film.     

Structural, electrical, and optical properties of copper indium diselenide thin film prepared by thermal evaporation method

Stoichiometric compound of copper indium diselenide (CuInSe₂) was synthesized by direct reaction of high-purity elemental copper, indium and selenium in an evacuated quartz ampoule. The phase structure and composition of the synthesized pulverized material analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive analysis of X-rays (EDAX) revealed the chalcopyrite structure and stoichiometry of elements. Thin films of CuInSe₂ were deposited onto organically cleaned soda lime glass substrates held at different temperatures (i.e. 300 K to 573 K) using thermal evaporation technique. CuInSe₂ thin films were then thermally annealed in a vacuum chamber at 573 K at a base pressure of 10^− 2 mbar for 1 h. The effect of substrate temperature (T_s) and thermal annealing (T_a) on structural, compositional, morphological, optical and electrical properties of films were investigated using XRD, transmission electron microscopy, EDAX, atomic force microscopy (AFM), optical transmission measurements and Hall effect techniques. XRD and EDAX studies of CuInSe₂ thin films revealed that the films deposited in the substrate temperature range of 423-573 K have preferred orientation of grains along the (112) plane and near stoichiometric composition. AFM analysis indicates that the grain size increases with increase of T_s and T_a. Optical and electrical characterizations of films suggest that CuInSe₂ thin films have high absorption coefficient (10⁴ cm^− 1) and resistivity value in the interval 10^− 2-10¹ Ω cm influenced by T_s and T_a.     

Influence of pressure and annealing on the microstructural and electro-optical properties of RF magnetron sputtered ITO thin films

Indium tin oxide thin films were deposited at room temperature by RF magnetron sputtering, under different pressures, and annealed in vacuum (10⁻⁶ Torr) in the 473–573 K temperature range. The microstructure of the films was analyzed in order to investigate its dependence on deposition pressure and annealing temperature. A correlation between microstructure and electro-optical properties was also established. Films produced at low pressures are crystalline and have higher conductivity than films deposited at high pressures. Films produced at high pressures are amorphous, but can be crystallized by annealing. With the increase in crystallinity, shifts of the absorption and plasma resonance edges to shorter wavelengths, attributed to an increase in carrier concentration, were observed at the transmittance spectra.     

Effect of heat treatment on characteristics of nanocrystalline ZnO films by electron beam evaporation

Zinc oxide thin films have been grown on glass substrate at room temperature by electron beam evaporation and then were annealed in annealing pressure 600 mbar at different temperatures ranging from 250 to 550 °C for 30 min. Electrical, optical and structural properties of thin films such as electrical resistivity, optical transmittance, band gap and grain size have been obtained as a function of annealing temperature. X-ray diffraction has shown that the maximum intensity peak corresponds to the (002) predominant orientation for ZnO films annealed at various temperatures. The full width at half maximum, decreases after annealing treatment which proves the crystal quality improvement. Scanning electron microscopy images show that the grain size becomes larger by increasing annealing temperature and this result agrees with the X-ray diffraction analysis.     

Effects of post-deposition annealing temperature and ambient on RF magnetron sputtered Sm<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript> gate on n-type silicon substrate

Samarium oxide (Sm₂O₃) thin films with thicknesses in the range of 15–30 nm are deposited on n-type silicon (100) substrate via radio frequency magnetron sputtering. Effects of post-deposition annealing ambient [argon and forming gas (FG) (90% N₂ + 10% H₂)] and temperatures (500, 600, 700, and 800 °C) on the structural and electrical properties of deposited films are investigated and reported. X-ray diffraction revealed that all of the annealed samples possessed polycrystalline structure with C-type cubic phase. Atomic force microscope results indicated root-mean-square surface roughness of the oxide film being annealed in argon ambient are lower than that of FG annealed samples, but they are comparable at the annealing temperature of 700 °C (Argon—0.378 nm, FG—0.395 nm). High frequency capacitance–voltage measurements are carried out to determine effective oxide charge, dielectric constant and semiconductor-oxide interface trap density of the annealed oxide films. Sm₂O₃ thin films annealed in FG have smaller amount of effective oxide charge and semiconductor-oxide interface trap density than those oxide films annealed in argon. Current–voltage measurements are conducted to obtain barrier heights of the annealed oxide films during Fowler–Nordheim tunneling.     

Structural,optical, and electrical properties of flash-evaporated copper indium diselenide thin films

Copper indium diselenide (CuInSe₂) compound was synthesized by reacting its elemental components, i.e., copper, indium, and selenium, in stoichiometric proportions (i.e., 1:1:2 with 5% excess selenium) in an evacuated quartz ampoule. Structural and compositional characterization of synthesized pulverized material confirms the polycrystalline nature of tetragonal phase and stoichiometry. CuInSe₂ thin films were deposited on soda lime glass substrates kept at different temperatures (300–573 K) using flash evaporation technique. The effect of substrate temperature on structural, morphological, optical, and electrical properties of CuInSe₂ thin films were investigated using X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), optical measurements (transmission and reflection), and Hall effect characterization techniques. XRD analysis revealed that CuInSe₂ thin films deposited above 473 K exhibit (112) preferred orientation of grains. Transmission and reflectance measurements analysis suggests that CuInSe₂ thin films deposited at different substrate temperatures have high absorption coefficient (~10⁴ cm⁻¹) and optical energy band gap in the range 0.93–1.02 eV. Results of electrical characterization showed that CuInSe₂ thin films deposited at different substrate temperatures have p-type conductivity and hole mobility value in the range 19–136 cm²/Vs. Variation of energy band gap and resistivity of CuInSe₂ thin films deposited at 523 K with thickness was also studied. The temperature dependence of electrical conductivity measurements showed that CuInSe₂ film deposited at 523 K has an activation energy of ~30 meV.     

Influence of annealing temperature on the properties of ZnO:Zr films deposited by direct current magnetron sputtering

Transparent conducting zirconium-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Zr) films were deposited on quartz substrates by direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering at room temperature. The influence of post-annealing temperature on the structural, morphological, electrical and optical properties of ZnO:Zr films were investigated. When annealing temperature increases from room temperature to 573 K, the resistivity decreases obviously due to an improvement of the crystallinity. However, with further increase in annealing temperature, the crystallinity deteriorates leading to an increase in resistivity. The films annealed at the optimum annealing temperature of 573 K in vacuum have the lowest resistivity of 9.8 × 10⁻⁴ Ω cm and a high transmittance of above 92% in the visible range.     

Indium doped ZnO films prepared by RF magnetron sputtering: effect of substrate temperature on the strain-induced band gap

Indium doped zinc oxide (InZnO) thin films were deposited onto corning glass substrates by RF magnetron sputtering. The dependence of crystal structure, surface morphology, optical properties and electrical conductivity on substrate temperature was investigated using XRD, AFM, UV-vis Spectrophotometer, Fluorescence Spectrophotometer and four-point probe. The films were prepared at different substrate temperatures viz, room temperature (RT), 473 K and 673 K at RF power 200 W. All the films showed preferred orientation along (002) direction. Crystallite size increased from 14 to 19 nm as the substrate temperature was increased to 473 K. With increase in substrate temperature the crystallites did not show any further growth. AFM analysis showed that the rms roughness value decreased from 60 nm to 23 nm when the substrate temperature was increased to 673 K. Optical measurements revealed maximum band gap and minimum refractive index for the film prepared at 473 K. A strong correlation between the band gap variation and the strain developed at different substrate temperatures is established.     

Preparation of nanocrystalline Cu<Subscript>2</Subscript>O thin film by pulsed laser deposition

In this paper, the synthesis of nanocrystalline copper oxides Cu₂O and CuO thin films on glass substrates using a pulsed 532 nm Nd:YAG laser is presented. Deposition of films is achieved at two different substrate temperatures. The influence of substrate temperature on the structural and optical properties of copper oxide films are discussed and analyzed. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results show that the deposited films are crystalline in nature. Films prepared at 300 °C substrate temperature were Cu₂O and has (111) and (200) diffracted peaks, while films grown at 500 °C were CuO and has (111) and (020) planes. The morphology of deposited films were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM). The optical energy gap of Cu₂O and CuO films have been determined and found to be 2.04 and 1.35 eV respectively.