Annealing time dependence on the structural, optical, optoelectrical, and electrical properties of copper antimony sulfide thin film synthesized using the dip coating method

Abstract

Copper antimony sulfide (CAS) thin films were synthesized by the dip coating method and annealed at 473 K for different annealing times (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 h). The nature of the structural and phase compositions of the CAS thin films were investigated using an x-ray diffractometer. For the annealing times of 1–4 h, the structural parameters of the thin films were evaluated, such as d-spacing (dhkl), crystallite size (D), microstrain (ε), and dislocation density (δ). The transmittance and reflectance spectra were analyzed to evaluate the linear optical, optoelectrical, dispersion, and nonlinear optical properties. Their values were increased as the CAS thin films were annealed for 1–3 h, and then decreased for 4–5 h. The resistance with temperature for the CAS thin films was measured by a two-probe method and obtained results in the range of ∼108–1010 Ω. The results show that the CAS thin films exhibit static dissipative behavior for the annealing times of 1–2 h, but reach an antistatic material state for the annealing time of 3 h. In addition, the hot-probe method was used to investigate the majority of carriers in the thin films. A negative voltage was shown and indicated the p-type properties for the synthesized CAS thin films.