Surfaces properties correlation with optical parameters of thickness dependent self-affine nanostructured SnS thin films: A study based on scaling law

Abstract

Fractal concepts are employed to investigate the surface properties of tin sulfide (SnS) thin films, which are deposited on Fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO)- coated glass substrates by the thermal evaporation (TE) technique. The surface topography of each deposited film is captured by AFM. The fractal dimensions of the AFM image were extracted through the Higuchi algorithm, and it is found that the thinner sample surface exhibits the maximum fractal dimension. The autocorrelation function and height-height correlation function are used to investigate the self-affinity behavior of surfaces. Dynamic surface roughening is characterized by different scaling exponents, such as the roughness exponent, the growth exponent, the dynamic scaling exponent, and the steepening exponent. It was observed that the values of average roughness, interface width, lateral correlation length, and mean square local slope are strongly influenced by film thickness. The self-affine fractal nature of thin film is estimated by the roughness exponent; however, island- or mound-type growth with quick surface roughening behavior is predicted by the growth exponent and the dynamic scaling exponent. Further, we have tried to correlate the optical properties such as transmission, reflection, and refractive index with the fractal dimension of SnS thin film. The increase in optical reflection with decreasing roughness indicates that absorber surfaces of the best crystalline films have the lowest reflectivity. The present results suggest that such surfaces, having a maximum fractal dimension and minimum optical reflectance, can be used as photon absorber layers for advanced solar cell devices.