Thin films of the quaternary compound semiconductor
Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) were produced by ion beam sputtering at substrate
temperatures of 323 K, 423 K, and 573 K. The chemical and structural
properties of the thin films were studied by electron microprobe analysis and
grazing incidence x-ray diffraction. It was shown that, similarly to the
corresponding crystals, the main phase in the thin films was Cu2ZnSnS4 with
a tetragonal lattice and the space group l4Їl4Ї . The transmittance spectra
near the fundamental absorption edge were used to establish the energies
and nature of optical transitions. The energies of crystal-field splitting (Δcr)
and spin–orbit splitting (Δso) of the valence band of the
Cu2ZnSnS4 quaternary compound were calculated on the basis of the
Hopfield quasi-cubic model
