Electrochemical Deposition of ZnSe from Dimethyl Sulfoxide Solution and Characterization of Epitaxial Growth

Abstract

In this work, we studied the conditions for the electrodeposition of ZnSe films from dimethyl sulfoxide solutions with a special focus on epitaxial growth. We examined the influence of experimental parameters such as the nature of the substrate, temperature, and hydrodynamic conditions. The investigated substrates were glass covered with SnO2:F, molybdenum and (1̄1̄1̄) or (100) n−InP substrates. The voltammetric behavior of the Zn(II)−Se−DMSO system showed that the mechanism of ZnSe film formation is strongly dependent on the nature of the substrate. Films prepared at constant potential were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), reflection of high energy electron diffraction (RHEED), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and also by optical measurements. Epitaxial growth of ZnSe was obtained on (100) and (1̄1̄1̄) n−InP crystalline planes with good quality as demonstrated by RHEED patterns and TEM measurements, a result that confirms that electrodeposition provides an alternative route to obtain epitaxial films of ZnSe.

Electrodeposition of semiconductors

“…A high resolution transmission electron micrograph (HRTEM) cross section is shown in Fig. 5, for a film deposited on (111)P InP, of about 50 nm thickness [38]. One can note the presence of stacking faults with characteristic angle of 558 to the substrate.…”

“…From Refs. [36][37][38][39], one of the problems which has still to be solved is the low faradaic efficiency (ratio of quantity of electricity needed for depositing the film to the total quantity which was exchanged) of the process in DMSO and selenosulphate aqueous solutions (a few percents instead of 90% to 100% for CdTe).…”

Analysis of the mechanism for electrodeposition of the ZnSe phase on Cu substrate

“…The main advantages of this method are simplicity, low energy consumption, accurate control of film thickness, composition and morphology [5,6]. That is why the electrochemical method has recently attracted a lot of attention [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25].…”

Effect of deposition parameters on structural, optical and electrical properties of nanocrystalline ZnSe thin films

“…The characteristics of nanocrystals prepared by different methods are critically dependent on the nature of preparation techniques. Several methods such as physical vapor deposition [6], metal organic chemical vapor deposition [7], pulsed laser deposition [8] molecular beam epitaxy [9], electro-chemical methods [10], spray pyrolisis [11], sol-gel deposition [12], chemical depositions, etc. have been used to prepare nanocrystalline films of ZnSe.…”