Characterization of TlInS1.8Se0.2 as advanced functional crystals

Abstract

In this work, selenium doped TlInS1.8Se0.2 crystals are used to fabricate multifunctional devices that can handle more than one duty at a time. After revealing the morphological, compositional, structural and optical properties of the doped crystal, it is sandwiched between Ag and carbon metals. The crystals are characterized by means of ultraviolet-visible light spectrophotometry, impedance spectroscopy and illumination dependent current-voltage characteristics techniques. While the optical spectroscopy allowed determining the energy band gap of the crystals as well as the optical conductivity in the terahertz frequency domain, the impedance spectroscopy allowed identifying the conductance and reflectance spectra in the gigahertz frequency domain. The two techniques reveal promising characteristics presented by optical switching at 2.20 eV and band pass filtering properties in mega/gigahertz frequency domains. On the other hand, the analysis of the current (I)- voltage (V) characteristics which are recorded in the dark and under photoexcitation of unfiltered tungsten light in the light power range of 25–130 mW, revealed light intensity dependent rectifying properties. Particularly, the modeling of the experimental I-V curves in accordance with the Richardson Schottky and Chueng's theoretical approaches have shown that the Schottky diode ideality factor, series resistance and barrier height decreases with increasing light power. Such behavior indicates wide tunability of the device when used as photosensors. With the features presented by small size, photosensitivity, gigahertz/terahertz spectral responses, the device can be promising element for use in visible light and microwave communications.