Structural, Optical, and Electrical Properties of Applied Amorphized and Polycrystalline Sb2S3 Thin Films

One of the intermediate steps in the organo-colloidal synthesis of crystalline Sb2S3 is a synthesis of spherical amorphous Sb2S3. In order to prove that the synthesized semiconductor can be considered an absorbing material for a solar device, the electronic and photovoltage properties of the amorphized and polycrystalline Sb2S3 thin films deposited by synthesized amorphous nanoparticles were studied. Optical studies revealed that the direct band gap energy was 1.65 eV and, two direct allowed transition of 1.57 and 1.91 eV for polycrystalline and amorphized thin films, respectively. The PL spectra of Sb2S3 showed an emission peak at 1.65 eV for both films. In order to obtain current-voltage (I-V) characteristics, two cells based on the Sb2S3 thin films as both an absorbing material and an electrolyte were designed and made. The observed Sb2S3 thin films, with a thickness of around 10 mu m, are of p-type. The exponential growth of the I-V curves reveals that the cells can work as a generator of electricity. (C) The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society and ASM International 2015