Fabrication and some physical properties of AgIn₅S₈ thin films

Abstract

AgIn5S8 thin films are deposited on glass substrates, kept at 300 K, by thermal evaporation of AgIn5S8 single crystals under the pressure of 10-5 Torr. The X-ray fluorescence analysis revealed that the films have a weight percentage of similar to11.5% Ag, 61.17% In, and 27.33% S which corresponds to 1:5:8 stoichiometric composition. X-ray analysis of the films reveals the polycrystalline nature of the films. The lattice parameter (a) of the films was calculated to be 10.784(5) Angstrom. The dark n-type electrical conductivity of the films was measured in the temperature range of 30-350 K. The conductivity data analysis shows that the thermionic emission of the charge carriers having activation energies of 147 and 224 meV in the temperature ranges of 130-230 and 240-350 K, respectively, are the dominant transport mechanism in the films. The variable range hopping transport mechanism is dominant below 130 K. The room temperature photocurrent-photon energy dependency predicts a band gap of 1.91 eV of the films. The illumination intensity-photocurrent dependency measured in the intensity range of 13-235 W cm(-2) reveals monomolecular recombination (linear) in the films and bimolecular recombination (sublinear) at the film surface corresponding to low and high applied illumination intensities, respectively. The time-dependant photocurrent measured at fixed illumination intensity reveals a response time of 0.85, 2.66 and 10.0 s in the time periods of 0-0.5, 0.5-1.0, and 1.0-10.0 s, respectively. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.