Study of InSb thin films grown on different substrates by the pulsed electrodeposition technique

Abstract

Stoichiometric InSb thin films were prepared, on four different substrates, using a pulsed electrodeposition technique. The electrochemical bath used for the growth of InSb thin films was made up of a mixture of aqueous solutions of indium trichloride (InCl3), antimony trichloride (SbCl3), citric acid (C6H8O7·H2O) and sodium citrate (Na3C6H5O7·2H2O). Energy dispersive analysis of X rays along with X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies show that the elemental composition and crystalinity of thin films is strongly dependent on the ionic composition of the electrochemical bath. Stoichiometric InSb thin films can be grown on all the four substrates from the same bath, by properly selecting the composition of the bath. XRD studies show that the InSb thin films grown on all the four substrates have preferred orientation along the (111) plane. The presence of sharp Raman peaks of longitudinal optical phonon mode and transverse optical phonon mode in stoichiometric thin films confirm that they are of good crystalinity.