Deposition of morphology-tailored PbS thin films by surfactant-enhanced aerosol assisted chemical vapor deposition

In this work, we report the results of deposition of PbS thin films using single molecular precursor, bis(O-isobutylxanthato)lead(II), in the presence of additives namely: sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), Tween and Triton x-100, via aerosol assisted chemical vapor deposition (AACVD). The as-deposited PbS thin films are highly crystalline and exhibited superior adhesion to glass substrates. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirmed the formation of pure cubic phase of PbS. Thin films deposited using 0.4 mM Triton X-100 as additive resulted in wire like structures while 0.8 mM Triton X-100 deposited thin films comprised of predominantly shoe shaped structures. Further, increase in concentration (1.2 mM) of Triton X-100 deposited films having rod like morphology. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirmed that in the presence of SDS, thin films consist of spherical shaped crystallites. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and X-ray photon electron microscopy (XPS) of as-deposited PbS thin films was used to study chemical composition of thin films.