Atomic layer deposition of chalcogenide thin films: processes, film properties, applications, and bibliometric prospect

Abstract

The use of atomic layer deposition (ALD) for the deposition of chalcogenide thin films have offered great potential applications in numerous research areas such as change-memory storage, sensors, solar cells, photocatalysis, and batteries, but advancing in these fields of research without understanding the previous developments may not be possible. In this review, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to establish the development of ALD chalcogenide thin films research for the first time. The qualitative approach was used to study several investigations that utilized the ALD technique in fabricating different chalcogenide thin film materials. The thin films deposition processes, properties, and applications were emphasized. It established the fact that ALD can produce quality chalcogenide thin films for different applications. Similarly, the bibliometrics which is a quantitative method was utilized to analyze ALD chalcogenide thin films based on the published documents retrieved from the Scopus database between the period 1993 and 2021. The influence and quality of published documents were assessed based on the ranking of several authors, authors' countries, institutions, and journals through various indicators like numbers of the published article, total citation and average citation per year, impact factor, and h_index. The bibliometric study revealed the highest annual publication was in 2019 and was found to decrease gradually in 2020 and 2021, which may be due to the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic. It concluded by creating the prospect for researchers to have knowledge about ALD chalcogenide thin films research, allowing more research focus and selecting an appropriate research collaborative network.