Optical absorption characteristics of polycrystalline AgGaSe2 thin films

Silver gallium di-selenide (AgGaSe2) composite thin films have been formed onto ultrasonically and chemically cleaned glass substrates by in situ thermal annealing of the stack of successively evaporated individual elemental layers in vacuum. The structural properties of the films were ascertained by the x-ray diffraction method. The diffractogram indicated that these films were polycrystalline in nature having tetragonal structure with lattice parameters, a approximate to 6.00 angstrom and c approximate to 10.92 angstrom and average grain dimension 40 nm. The optical properties and atomic compositions of the films have been determined by UV-VIS-NIR spectrophotometry (photon wavelength ranging between 300 and 2500 nm) and energy dispersive analysis of x-ray, respectively. The typical optical absorption characteristic of the films has been critically analysed. The optical absorption coefficients vary from 103 to 105 cm- 1 in the measured wavelength range of photons. The films have more than one type of fundamental electronic transitions. Direct allowed and direct forbidden transitions vary from 1.628 to 1.748 eV and 2.077 to 2.193 eV, respectively, depending on the composition of the films. The former transitions are found to have a general tendency to be symmetric around non-molecularity Delta X = 0, defined by Delta X = [(Ag/Ga)] - 1, while the latter shows no such dependence. Stoichiometric or slightly silver-deficient films show electron transition energies closer to the single crystal value. Spin-orbit splitting of the valence band becomes minimum at perfect stoichiometry.