Semiconductor thin films of CuMnS have been deposited onto conductive fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrate using an electrodeposition method to investigate their properties for possible applications. Copper sulfate, manganese sulfate and Thiourea were precursors used for sources of copper, manganese and sulphur ions respectively. The concentration of manganese ions was varied while keeping deposition voltage and time constant at 0.6 and 100 s, respectively. The films were characterized for optical, structural and morphological properties. The results obtained showed that the absorbance of the films is high in the visible (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR) regions but decreases towards NIR. The films transmittance is low in the VIS but increased in the NIR regions. The extinction coefficient is low in the VIS and NIR regions and decreases as concentration of manganese ion increased. The refractive index is high and initially increased slightly from 4.49 to 4.68 in the mid-VIS region while manganese concentration increased from 0.05 to 0.15 M and then decreased to the value of 2.73 as concentration of manganese ion increased further. The optical conductivity is high throughout the VIS and NIR regions while the optical bandgap energy is in the range of 1.5 to 2.05 eV and increases as manganese ion concentration increased. The XRD analysis showed that the deposited thin films of CuMnS are crystalline with average crystallite size and micro-strain in the range of 15.86 - 24. 45 nm and 3.97×10–3 - 6.13×10–3, respectively. The SEM results showed that the films are composed of particle sizes that are spherical in shape, uniform in sizes and densely packed together and consequently make the film surface rough. These properties exhibited by the films make them good materials for applications in photovoltaic calls, solar control coatings, photothermal applications and many other electronic devices that require high temperatures. HIGHLIGHTS This paper focused on the study of the effect of manganese ion concentration on the chalcogenide semiconductor thin films of CuMnS for possible device applications Electrodeposition method was used to fabricate the semiconductor thin films of CuMnS Optical, Structural and morphological properties of the thin films were characterized The deposited thin films of CuMnS were found to have good applications for photovoltaic cells and other optoelectronic device fabrications GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
The properties of PbMnS semiconductor thin films deposited on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate using an electrodeposition method are investigated to determine their possible device applications. Lead acetate, manganese sulfate, and thiourea were used as precursors for sources of lead, manganese, and sulfur ions respectively. The concentration of lead, manganese, and sulfur ions sources with deposition voltage of 1.8 V was kept constant. The films were deposited using three electrodes system of electrodeposition method by varying deposition time. The films were characterized for optical, structural, morphological, and compositional properties and results showed that the absorbance, refractive index, and optical conductivity of the films are high in the visible (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR) regions but decreases in the NIR. These three properties initially increased with an increase in deposition time up to a time of 70 s which has the highest values of these properties before decreasing to lower values. The transmittance and extinction coefficient of the films are low in both VIS and NIR regions. The bandgap energy of PbS was found to be blue shifted with values of 1.51 eV, 1.54 eV, 1.60 eV, 1.45 eV, and 1.35 eV for the films deposited at 30 s, 50 s, 70 s, 90 s, and 110 s respectively. XRD analysis showed that the films are crystalline with sharp peaks positions indexable to crystalline planes of (111), (200), (211), (220), (311) and (400) with average crystallite size in the range of 16.110 nm to 17.218 nm. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) results showed that the films are composed of lead, manganese, and sulfur but there are some impurity elements present mostly as a result of the substrate used. These properties exhibited by the deposited thin films of PbMnS showed that they can be used for many optoelectronic applications such as photovoltaic cells, sensors, photoconductors, etc.
Semiconductor thin films of lead manganese sulphide (PbMnS) have been successfully deposited on florinated tin oxide (FTO) conductive glass substrate using an electrodeposition method. Lead acetate (Pb(CH3COO)2), manganese sulphate (MnSO4.H2O) and thiourea (CH4N2S) were the precursor used for cadmium (Cd2+), manganese (Mn2+) and sulphur (S2-) sources respectively. The concentration of manganese (Mn2+) was varied while keeping the concentrations of Pb2+ and S2- constant at 0.2 M and 0.1 M respectively. The deposited films were annealed at temperature of 250 oC and subjected for optical, electrical, structural and morphological characterizations. The results of the characterizations showed that the deposited thin films of PbMnS have high absorbance, high absorption coefficient throughout VIS and NIR regions. The band gap energy of the films is tuned to the order of 1.9 eV to 2.0 eV and tends to constant as concentration of Mn2+ increased. The electrical properties (electrical resistivity and conductivity) of the films are dependent on the concentration of Mn2+ and film thickness. The range of values of the electrical properties is found to be within the range of values for semiconductor materials. The XRD analysis revealed that the deposited thin films of PbMnS is crystalline but the crystallinity declined with increase in concentration of Mn2+. The SEM morphology showed that the surfaces of the films are highly homogeneous in nature and particle sizes are uniform on the substrate with the majority of the particles been spherical in shape. These observed properties exhibited by the deposited thin films of PbMnS make the films good materials for many optoelectronic and electronic applications such as solar cell, light emitting diode (LED), photodetector etc.
In this work, superlattice thin films of CdSe/ZnSe were fabricated on a non-conductive glass substrate using the successive ionic layer adsorption reaction (SILAR) method to investigate their properties for possible optoelectronic applications. The SILAR process involved a total cycle time of 100 seconds for a complete SILAR cycle with a total of 12 cycles made by depositing alternative layers of CdSe and ZnSe. The deposited thin films were annealed at different temperatures and characterized to determine their optical, elemental, morphological and structural properties using UV-VIS spectroscopy, Scanning electron microscope (SEM)/energy dispersive x-ray spectroscope (EDS) and x-ray diffraction techniques (XRD). The results of the characterizations revealed that optical properties of the films such as absorbance, reflectance, refractive index and extinction coefficient are low but increased as the annealing temperature increases. The bandgap energy was found to decrease from 2.50 eV-1.90 eV for as-deposited film and those annealed between 373 K and 523 K. film thickness was found to range from 130.169 nm to 254.441 nm. The EDS results showed that the target elements such as Cd, Zn, Se and other elements traceable to the nature of substrate used were found to be present in the deposited thin film samples. The results of the XRD showed that the thin films are polycrystalline and the diffraction peaks are influenced by annealing of the sample at a higher temperature such as 523 K. The crystal parameters such as crystallite size, dislocation density and micro-strain of the film at 523 K were found to be 5.546 nm, 3.25 × 1016 l/m2 and 1.13 × 10-2. The SEM results showed that the CdSe/ZnSe superlattice films were composed of tiny nanoparticles of different dimensions and sizes with hollow which increased as the annealing temperature increased from 432 K to 523 K. Possible applications of the deposited superlattice thin films in solar cells and optoelectronic devices were established by virtue of their bandgap energy and other properties.
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