Structural and Surface Characteristics of Cadmium-Antimony Selenide Thin Films Prepared by Thermal Evaporation

Abstract

In this work, thin films of Cd_0.9Sb_0.1Se were successfully deposited on glass substrates by thermal evaporation method at room temperature. The Cd_1-xSb_xSe alloy composed of highly-pure Cd, Sb and Se samples was prepared with x=0.1 by melting method in a tube furnace at 900°C. The structural and surface characteristics of these thin films were studied by the x-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy to determine their dependencies on film thickness. These films were amorphous and the grain size as well as the surface roughness was increasing with film thickness. The energy band gap was decreased from 2.6 to 2.15 eV with increasing film thickness from 150 to 450 nm. These structures are efficient candidates for some applications such as quantum devices.