Annealing effect for SnS thin films prepared by high-vacuum evaporation

Abstract

Thin films of SnS are deposited onto molybdenum-coated soda lime glass substrates using the high-vacuum evaporation technique at a substrate temperature of 300 °C. The as-deposited SnS layers are then annealed in three different media: (1) H2S, (2) argon, and (3) vacuum, for different periods and temperatures to study the changes in the microstructural properties of the layers and to prepare single-phase SnS photoabsorber films. It is found that annealing the layers in H2S at 400 °C changes the stoichiometry of the as-deposited SnS films and leads to the formation of a dominant SnS2 phase. Annealing in an argon atmosphere for 1 h, however, causes no deviations in the composition of the SnS films, though the surface morphology of the annealed SnS layers changes significantly as a result of a 2 h annealing process. The crystalline structure, surface morphology, and photosensitivity of the as-deposited SnS films improves significantly as the result of annealing in vacuum, and the vacuum-annealed films are found to exhibit promising properties for fabricating complete solar cells based on these single-phase SnS photoabsorber layers.

In situ growth of SnS absorbing layer by reactive sputtering for thin film solar cells

“…7,8 Various methods have been investigated for the preparation of high quality SnS lms, e.g. chemical vapor deposition (CVD), 1,9 atomic layer deposition (ALD), 3 thermal evaporation, [10][11][12][13] sputtering, 2,14,15 chemical bath deposition (CBD), 16 spray pyrolysis, 7,17,18 and electrochemical deposition (ED). 19,20 So far most successful methods of fabricating high quality SnS lms are related to simultaneous deposition of two elements and crystallization, 11,18 such as ALD which produced pure, stoichiometric and homogeneous SnS lms from the reaction of bis(N,N 0 -diisopropylacetamidinato)tin(II) [Sn(MeC(N-iPr) 2 ) 2 ] and H 2 S at 200 C and achieved the highest efficiency of 4.63% for SnS-based thin lm solar cells.…”

Simple eco-friendly synthesis of the surfactant free SnS nanocrystal toward the photoelectrochemical cell application

“… System Light power (mW cm −2 ) Short-circuit current density (mA cm −2 ) Ref. FTO-SnS: 0.1 M K 4 Fe(CN) 6 + 0.01 M K 3 Fe(CN) 6 100 0.45 This work FTO-SnS: 0.1 M Na 2 S 2 O 3 30 0.3 30 FTO-Cu: SnS: 0.1 M K 4 Fe(CN) 6 + 0.01 M K 3 Fe(CN) 6 60 1.2 36 FTO-SnS: 0.1 M K 4 Fe(CN) 6 + 0.01 M K 3 Fe(CN) 6 100 0.42 40 ITO-SnS: 0.5 M Na 2 SO 4 100 3 37 FTO-SnS: 0.1 M Na 2 S 2 O 3 30 1 41 FTO-SnS: I 3− /I − 100 0.087 42 ITO-SnS-TiO 2 : 0.5 M Na 2 S 100 1.5 43 FTO-SnS: I 3− /I − 100 0.07 44 SnO 2 -SnS: 0.1 M FeCl 3 100 0.65 47 FTO-SnS: 0.1 M FeCl 3 100 0.25 48 Mo-SnS: 0.1 M H 2 SO 4 100 0.01 49 FTO-SnS: 0.1 M Eu(NO 3 ) 3 100 0.017 50 <...>…”

Effects of annealing on SnS films produced by chemical bath deposition (CBD)

“…It is reported that the relaxation of the film to the equilibrium state is accelerated by thermal annealing [9][10][11]. Some researchers have investigated the changes in the films' optical, structural, electrical, and photosensitivity properties depending on the annealing temperature and atmosphere [12][13][14]. SnS is a metal chalcogenide semiconductor with a band gap of 1.30 eV that can be used in various applications.…”