Effect of Film Thickness on Optical Properties of Tin Selenide Thin Films Prepared by Thermal Evaporation for Photovoltaic Applications

Tin Selenide (SnSe) thin films were prepared from the pulverized compound material by thermal evaporation method, to study the effect of film thickness on its structural, and optical properties. The different thicknesses of SnSe thin films, from 150 nm to 500 nm, were grown on glass substrate held at room temperature. X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, transmission measurement, and four-point probe method were used to characterize the thin films. The optical transmission spectra suggests, the energy band gap decreases with increasing the film thickness. The electrical resistivity shows that the films were semi-conducting in behavior having p-type conductivity.