Structural and optical characteristics of thermally evaporated TlGaSe2 thin films

Abstract

The present paper reports the structural and optical properties of thermally evaporated TlGaSe2 thin films. X-ray diffraction pattern of evaporated film presented two diffraction peaks around 24.15 and 36.00° which are associated with planes of monoclinic unit cell. Surface morphology of the TlGaSe2 thin films was investigated by scanning electron and atomic force microscopy techniques. Although there was observed some ignorable amount of clusters of quasi-spherical shape in the scanning electron microscope image, the film surface was observed almost uniform. Raman spectrum exhibited six peaks around 253, 356, 488, 800, 1053 and 1440 cm−1 associated with possible vibrational mode combinations. Band gap energy of the thin film was determined as 3.01 eV from the analyses of transmission spectrum. Transmission spectrum presented strong Urbach tail and analyses of corresponding region resulted in Urbach energy of 0.66 eV. The structural and optical properties of deposited TlGaSe2 thin films were compared with those of single crystal. This comparison would provide valuable information about influence of thickness on the studied compounds.