Electrodeposition of Bismuth Thin Films

Abstract

The electrodeposition technique is an interesting approach for the production of materials with application in electronics devices and photovoltaics components, since needs simple conditions and has low costs (1). The EALD (Electrochemical Atomic Layer Deposition) method allows a high control on the deposit by the single-layers surface limited electrodeposition (2). With an automatized system for the repetition of different mono-layers deposition cycles we are able to control the thickness and composition of the entire final material, which is an important requested task in nanoscience.In this study, we present the electrodeposition of bismuth-based materials, which is a relatively unexplored new field of research that is expected to show many desirable thermoelectric, optoelectronic and electronic properties for technologically innovative devices besides bismuth is a component of nanostructure topological insulators.Thin films of both bismuth alone and semiconductors compounds have been explored with EALD using a silver (111) mono-crystal as substrate (3). Our goals were to grow a “massive” layer (up to hundreds of nanometers) of crystalline nanostructured bismuth, deposit a multi-layer crystalline structure of bismuth selenide investigating the optimal conditions to obtain these materials in addition to the understanding of the deposition mechanisms.The synthesized thin films have been characterized electrochemically with cyclic and stripping voltammetry to obtain composition information followed by a morphological and microanalytical SEM-EDX investigation and structural characterization. Lincot, Thin Solid Films (2005), 487, 40.W. Gregory and J. L. Stickney, J. Electroanal. Chem. (1991), 300, 543.Xiao, J. Yang, W. Zhu, J. Peng, J. Zhang, Electrochimica Acta (2009), 54, 6821-6826.