“…13 Briey, the above mentioned substrates were dipped sequentially in aqueous solutions of 0.1 M In 2 (Cl) 3 for 60 s, and S ion precursor solution (0.075 M Na 2 S, with a pH equal to 11.3 adjusted by a buffer solution of 0.1 M KH 2 PO 4 and 0.1 M NaOH) for 150 s. This was followed by dipping in 0.01 M CuCl 2 aqueous solution for 20 s, and again in S ion precursor solution for 150 s. Between each dip, the lms were rinsed with de-ionized water for 30 s to remove excess precursors and dried in air before the next dipping. Such an immersion procedure is termed as one cycle for copper indium sulde deposition, and this immersion cycle was repeated several times (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20) until the desired amount of Cu x In y S z quantum dots (QDs) were incorporated. To increase the crystallinity of SILAR-deposited CuInS 2 , samples were annealed at different temperatures (250 C and 500 C) in a split-tube furnace under sulfur atmosphere/Ar gas for 30 min at a ramp of 2 C min À1 .…”