Electrochemical deposition of tin doped zinc selenide (SnZnSe) thin film material

Abstract

In this research study, the growth of SnZnSe thin film materials was carried out using the cationic precursor, which was an aqueous solution of 0.035 mol solution of ZnSO4.7H2O while the anionic precursor was 0.1 mol solution of selenium metal powder was prepared by dissolving with 4 mL of hydrogen chloride (HCl). The XRD of the films deposited on FTO substrates at different dopant concentration 1%, 2%, 3% and 4% showed the reflection peaks at (220), (221), (300), (310), (311), (222) and (320) with the lattice constant of a=7.189 Ǻ.  The SEM results revealed the random distribution of tiny nano-grains on the substrate, the nano-grains were observed to agglomerate due to the presence of large free energy characteristics of small particles. The optical bandgap of the deposited material enhanced from 2.0-2.3 eV as the dopant concentration increased.