Facile fabrication of p-type CuxS transparent conducting thin films by metal sulfide precursor solution approach and their application in quantum dot thin films

Abstract

We present a facile route for the fabrication of P-type CuxS transparent and conducting thin films (TCTFs) using copper (I) oxide and butyl-dithiocarbamic acid as precursors by pulling method on glass. The as-deposited highly conductive crystalline CuxS films showed high carrier concentration (∼3.11 × 1022 cm−3), low electrical resistivity (∼1.02 × 10−4 Ω cm) and conclusive p-type conduction. X-ray diffraction studies showed high crystallinity, and the optical transmission spectra in UV–vis–NIR region of such films were recorded, indicating that the transparency was over 75% with a band gap of 1.52 eV. The room-temperature sheet resistance increased from 9.9 to 302.4 Ω sq−1 with increasing baking temperature. The CuxS/quantum dot bifacial thin films have been fabricated, and the experimental results indicated that luminescent, transparent, and conductive CuxS/Cu-doped ZnyCd1-yS thin films have a very high potential application in thin film solar cells.