Abstract
Indium sulfide (In 2 S 3 ) is an n-type semiconductor with wide bandgap energy (2.2–2.7 eV) and is currently used as buffer/window layer in thin film solar cells as an alternative to toxic CdS. In the present study, In 2 S 3 thin films were deposited on soda lime glass substrates using thermal evaporation technique at different substrate temperatures, T s = 200 °C–350 °C. Further, all the as-deposited films were annealed in sulfur ambient at 250 °C for 1 h. The structural, compositional and optical properties of annealed In 2 S 3 films were analyzed using GIXD, EDS and Photon RT spectrophotometer respectively. All the annealed films exhibited polycrystalline nature with improved crystallinity and high optical transmittance in the visible region. Moreover, the as-deposited films were sulfur deficient whereas in annealed layers the S/In ratio was increased due to sulfur annealing. Therefore, annealing of In 2 S 3 films in sulfur atmosphere enhanced the quality of the films. Among all the as-deposited and annealed films, the layers grown at T s = 300 °C followed by annealing at 250 °C have shown better structural and optical properties than the other films.
Highlights
Now-a-days, researchers are showing great interest on environmental friendly materials to develop low cost solar cells
In case of In2S3 films deposited at higher temperatures, the sulfur deficiency is a common phenomenon occurred due to re-evaporation of sulfur from the film surface owing to its high volatility and vapour pressure
It is observed that S/In ratio decreased from 1.21 to 1.01 with increase of substrate temperature (200 °C– 350 °C) in the as-grown films due to re-evaporation of sulfur from the films, owing to its high volatility and vapour pressure, whereas for annealed layers, the S/In ratio is increased and varied in the range, 1.53–1.66
Summary
Now-a-days, researchers are showing great interest on environmental friendly materials to develop low cost solar cells. In case of In2S3 films deposited at higher temperatures, the sulfur deficiency is a common phenomenon occurred due to re-evaporation of sulfur from the film surface owing to its high volatility and vapour pressure. To overcome this problem, sulfur annealing is an apt approach to maintain stoichiometric composition of In2S3 films. In the present study, thermally evaporated In2S3 films were post annealed in sulfur atmosphere and the structural, compositional and optical properties of the layers were investigated using various techniques
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