Investigating the effect of Zn doping on physical properties of nanostructured Sb2S3 thin films by dip-coating technique

Abstract

In this research, the effect of zinc doping on physical properties of Sb2S3 thin films grown by the sol–gel dip-coating method, on the glass substrates was investigated. XRD patterns indicated that the Znx(Sb2S3)1-x (x = 0.02, 0.05, 0.07, 0.1) thin films have orthorhombic crystalline structure while the intensity of the peaks decreased with increasing Zn contamination. The FESEM images demonstrated that the grain size decreased with increasing Zn concentration. The porosity of the samples changed by different values of Zn. The optical transmission spectra exhibited a shift in the absorption edge for various zinc concentrations. The refractive index of sample with x = 0.02 has the highest value among all samples. In addition, the band gap of thin films is about 2.4–3.6 eV. The PL spectra showed the doped sample with the x value of 0.02 which has the highest visible emission. Also, the contact angle measurements showed that the surface of the films were hydrophilic.