Effect of Ag Doping on Structural, Optical and Electrical Properties of SnS:Ag Thin Films Prepared by Pulse Electroposition

Abstract

Silver-doping in SnS films can improve the semiconducting properties of SnS films. Based on our previous research, SnS:Ag thin films were deposited on ITO coated glass by pulse electro-deposition in order to study their structural, optical and electrical properties. SnS:Ag thin films were characterized with X-ray diffraction (XRD) , Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and some other methods. The primary composition of the films is SnS, but maybe there is a little quantity of SnS2, Ag8SnS6 and other compounds. The doped films exhibit good crystallization with big grain size. They have an optical gap of 1.66~1.89eV and a high absorption coefficient (α＞5×104cm-1). Hall measurement has shown that all the samples are of p-type conduction with low resistivity of the order of 10-3Ω•cm, and the carrier concentration increases to 1019cm-3 after Ag-doping. In conclusion, the semiconducting properties of the SnS films have been improved by silver-doping. Thus, SnS:Ag thin films can be used as solar cells absorbers.

Effects of gallium and arsenic substitution on the electronic and magnetic properties of monolayer SnS

“…Several investigations exist in the literature about the doping in SnS to enhance the photovoltaic and optoelectronic properties. For instance, a thin film of Ag-doped SnS has already been prepared to investigate the changes induced by doping in structure, dielectric, and optical properties and showed a significant decrease in the resistivity up to 10 −3 Ω cm with adding impurities [31]. Similarly, the thin-film of Cu@SnS has been pre-pared successfully using the spray pyrolysis method and have observed enhance optoelectronic properties of doped SnS.…”

Ex situ Sn diffusion: a well-suited technique for enhancing the photovoltaic properties of a SnS absorber layer

“…But in the literature, there are only a few works on doping of SnS films. Yang et al [11] found that the semiconducting properties of SnS films deposited using pulsed electrodeposition could be improved by Ag doping. Ge et al [12] reported the doping of SnS films (deposited using the chemical bath technique) with In and they could tune the band gap of the material.…”

“…The main focus of this work was to reduce the resistance of the SnS layer without affecting any of its favourable optical and structural properties. It is generally difficult to prepare low-resistive SnS films [3,5,[10][11][12][13]. Reddy and Reddy [16] reported that the films with excess Sn exhibited good conductivity.…”