Chemical Solution Deposition of Sb2Se3 Films to Study Their Structural, Morphological and Optical Properties

At room temperature chemical solution deposition technique has been employed for the deposition of Sb 2 Se 3 thin films. Solution based deposition of Sb 2 Se 3 crystals with variation in reaction time found to be playing a significant role in controlling the reaction rate during the deposition of Sb 2 Se 3 films. Temporal evolution of structural, morphological and optical properties of deposited Sb 2 Se 3 films were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy and UV-visible spectroscopy, respectively. Solution deposition of Sb 2 Se 3 films involves two steps: initial nucleation and crystal formation followed by growth to form final films. Increased reaction time from 30 to 120 min, deposited films showed morphological evolution for Sb 2 Se 3 nanocrystals from dense spheres to self-assembled flower-like morphology. In addition, optical energy band gap variation from 1.60 to 1.63 eV, suggest the possibility of crystal size optimization with energy band gap tunability of Sb 2 Se 3 crystals in the visible region. This is also evident from the photoluminescence studies, which reveals the luminescence intensity variation with crystal size of Sb 2 Se 3 as a function of deposition time. Optical and morphological response of Sb 2 Se 3 crystals to the reaction conditions suggests it as a suitable and potential candidate for optoelectronic applications such as photovoltaic cells, electronic nano-devices, fuel cells etc .