Effect of Insertion of Aluminum Nanosheets on the Structural, Optical and Dielectric Properties of Stacked Layers of Selenium

Abstract

In this work, the time dependent metal induced crystallization process in stacked layers of selenium that are sandwiched with aluminum nanosheets of thicknesses of 50 nm are investigated by means of X-ray diffraction and optical spectrophotometry techniques. The Al nanosheets motivated the growth of orthorhombic phases of selenium and lowered the energy bang gap of the amorphous films from 2.26 to 1.82 eV when the orthorhombic phase is achieved. The time dependent monitoring of the structural and optical properties over eighteen months have shown that both of the orthorhombic and amorphous phases exhibit a second transformation to hexagonal and stabilize at that phase within ten days of the growth time. The presence of the aluminum nanosheets enhanced the light absorbability by 15 and 5 times in the orthorhombic and hexagonal phases, respectively. In addition, the dielectric spectra of the studied films display similar characteristics in the hexagonal phase with slight differences that results from Al nanosheets. The dielectric spectra for both of the amorphous and orthorhombic phases displayed resonance peaks in the visible and infrared ranges of light. The structural and optical analysis that are carried out through this study represent a guide for using the selenium films in optoelectronic technology.