Electrical conduction noise and its correlation with structural properties of Cu2ZnSnS4 thin films

Abstract

Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) thin films have been deposited by ultrasonic assisted chemical vapor deposition in a single step process at different substrate temperatures and structural, morphological, electrical and conduction noise characteristics of the CZTS thin films have been studied. Single phase CZTS thin films are formed at 275 °C and 325 °C deposition temperatures, whereas the CZTS thin film deposited at 375 °C showed secondary phase also. The crystallinity of the films improves and resistivity decreases with the increases of the deposition temperature. The temperature dependent electrical conductivity of the films reveals that in the temperature range 300–250 K, thermally activated conduction is observed. The conduction noise in the CZTS thin films, exhibits 1/f noise in the low frequency region and found to be strongly dependent on the film deposition temperatures. The film deposited at 275 °C and 375 °C shows larger conduction noise, whereas the film deposited at 325 °C shows smaller noise. For the low frequency 1/f noise, the value of α is also found to be the minimum for the film deposited at 325 °C. The higher value of conduction noise in the film deposited at 275 °C is related to poor crystallinity and less compact morphology. For the film deposited at 375 °C, crystallinity and compactness improves, but the presence of the secondary phases seems to be responsible for generating higher noise. The smallest conduction noise of the film deposited at 325 °C is due to single phase film with better crystallinity and smaller trap density ∼5.1 × 1015 cm−2 eV−1.