Annealing effect on structural and electrical properties of AgGaSe2 thin films

Abstract

180-185Structural, thermo-electrical and electrical properties of AgGaSe2 (AGS) thin films prepared in vacuum onto glass substrates by stacked elemental layer (SEL) deposition technique have been studied. The films were annealed at 100 to 350°C for 15 min. The atomic composition of the films has been measured by energy dispersive analysis of X-ray (EDAX) method. The structural and thermo-electrical properties of the films have been ascertained by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the hot-probe method, respectively. The electrical properties of the films are measured by standard dc method using a liquid nitrogen cryostat. The structural, thermo-electrical and electrical properties have been investigated as a function of different annealing temperature. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) reveals that the films were polycrystalline in nature. The lattice parameters, grain size, strain and dislocation densities of the films have been calculated. The thermoelectric power indicates the presence of p-type majority carriers. The electrical conductivity of the films has been found to vary from 1.40 10−5 to 2.18 10−2 (-cm)−1 as temperature varies between -173 and 100°C. The activation energies vary from 43.60 to 94.70 meV as annealing temperatures vary between 350 and 100°C. Probable identities of the origin of AGS films have been obtained by using these activation energies. The dominance of grain boundary effect has been ascertained by applying the Seto’s model