Structural and optical characterization of deposition duration varied chemically deposited nanostructured ZnSSe thin films

In this work, ternary zinc sulphoselenide (ZnSSe) thin films were prepared using a cost-effective chemical technique on glass substrates by varying the deposition period at a bath temperature of 70 °C. The X-ray diffraction analysis revealed the nanocrystalline nature of the films, with a cubic zinc blende structure and a preferential orientation along the (111) plane. The crystallite sizes increase from 17 to 28 nm with an increase in deposition time. The field emission scanning electron microscope micrographs displayed uniformly distributed spherical nano-shaped grains across the substrate. Energy-dispersive X-ray analysis was used to obtain the chemical composition of the films. The optical analysis showed that all the films exhibit 70%–80% transmittance, and the optical energy band gap decreases from 3.23 to 3.16 eV with increasing deposition time. The observed intriguing properties of ZnSSe thin films prove their importance in a wide range of optoelectronic device applications.