Investigation on thermoelectric properties of SnSe thin films as prepared by RF magnetron sputtering

Abstract

In this work, we investigated the thermoelectric properties of SnSe (Tin Selenide) thin films onto SiO2/Si-wafer substrates as prepared by RF (radio frequency) magnetron sputtering technique. The sputtering conditions used base pressure below 5.5 10−4 Pa and working pressure at 0.93 Pa within the Ar atmosphere as a flow rate fixed 40 sccm. The RF sputtering power was applied at 80 W and sputtering time for 30 min. After thin film deposition, as-deposited thin films were annealed by the vacuum annealing method at 300–450 °C. The crystal structure, morphology and film thickness, and atomic composition of SnSe thin film were carried out by X-ray diffraction (XRD), the field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) techniques, respectively. The thermoelectric properties (electrical resistivity; ρ) and Seebeck coefficient; S) were measured by the ZEM-3 method to calculate the power factor (PF) value. The results showed that the as-deposited thin films had improved the crystallography of SnSe from amorphous to crystalline phases after thin films were annealed at a temperature range of 300–400 °C. At room temperature, the maximum power factor of 0.35 mW m˗1 K˗2 (ρ = 202 mΩ m and S = 165 μV K˗1) could be found to estimate the dimensionless Figure of Merit (ZT) values around 0.44 for annealing thin film sample at 400 °C.