Present work reports the effect of substrate on the optical properties of Se 92 Te 4 Ag 4 thin films. Thin films of thickness 2500 Å were prepared by the thermal evaporation of the bulk samples. Amorphous nature of thin films is confirmed by the X-ray diffraction spectra. The transmittance spectra of Se 92 Te 4 Ag 4 thin films were obtained in the spectral region in the range 300-1100 nm. The optical band gap (E g ) and extinction coefficient (k) has been calculated from the absorbance data. The value of refractive index (n) has been determined from Swanepoel's method. The band gap of the film deposited on mica substrate (1.24 eV) is smallest as compared to the band gap of the films deposited on microscopic glass (1.29 eV) and quartz (1.26 eV). The change in value of optical parameters with change in substrate is explained in terms of disorder and defects, which confirms the dependence of optical parameters on types of substrates.
IntroductionThin films of chalcogenide glasses have attracted significant attention because of their interesting physical, electrical and optical properties as well as their potential application in optoelectronics and thermoelectric device fabrication [1][2][3][4]. Thin films deposited under different conditions produce different results [5], depending on thin film deposition methods (vacuum evaporation, chemical bath deposition, radio frequency, laser sputtering, etc.) or parameters (thickness of film, type of substrate, substrate temperature, etc.). There are various deposition parameters, such as thickness, substrate temperature, type of substrate and deposition rate, on which properties of films may depend. A wide range of deposition parameters make it possible to prepare a semiconductor with specific properties required for certain applications, and hence the performance of certain devices, which could not be achieved otherwise with a simple elemental or compound semiconductor, may be achieved using different deposition conditions. The present study is centered over the effect of substrate types on the structural and optical properties of thermally evaporated Se 92 Te 4 Ag 4 thin films. Three types of different substrates (microscope glass, quartz and mica) are used for the thin film depositions. Unfortunately there are very few reports [5][6][7] available on the properties of films depending on types of substrate. The effect of thickness on optical properties of Se-Te-Ag thin films is also available in literature [8,9], so a detailed analysis of the effect of substrate type is reported here for the optical properties of Se 92 Te 4 Ag 4 films. The envelope method was used for the calculations of refractive index and absorption coefficient by analyzing transmission spectra [10], whereas Tauc's extrapolation was employed for optical energy gap