Composition, structural, dielectric and DC characterization of vacuum deposited ZnSe thin films

ZnSe thin films with different thicknesses are deposited onto glass substrates under a vacuum of 4×10⁻⁵ mbar by vacuum evaporation. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry is used to identify the composition of the deposited films. The composition of the deposited films is found to be nearly stoichiometric. The X-ray diffractogram reveals a cubic structure with preferential orientation along the (1 1 1) direction and structural parameters such as crystallite size D, dislocation density δ, strain ε, and lattice parameters are calculated. It is observed that the crystallite size increases from 20.11 to 55.56 nm with increase of film thickness. In the DC conduction studies the conduction mechanism is found to follow an exponential trap distribution with density of states 3.251×10⁴⁸ J⁻¹ m⁻³. The dielectric constant is calculated as 8.11 [306 K].