OPTICAL AND STRUCTURAL PROPERTIES OF COPPER ALUMINUM DISELENIDE (CuAlSe2) COMPOUND THIN FILMS
ABSTRACT
A low cost chemical bath deposition technique has been used for the preparation of Copper aluminum diselenide (CuAlSe2) thin films onto commercial microscope glass substrates. The values of deposition parameters were varied such as temperature (50-70oC), deposition time (12 – 60hrs), volume of complexiing agent (1-9ml) and bath pH (8.35 – 10.10) to obtain good quality thin films. The optical, structural and morphological properties of thin films were studied by Jenway Software 6405 UV – VIS Spectrophotometer, X-ray minidiffractometer MD – 10 and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) studies respectively. The optical property revealed that CuAlSe2 films have energy band gaps range value at room temperature and elevated temperature as 2.22 – 2.58eV and 2.00 – 2.14eV respectively. The X-ray diffraction study showed that the CuAlSe2 films were polycrystalline in nature with the preferential orientation along the (112) plane. The Scanning Electron Microscopy results indicated that the films were smooth, uniform and the substrate surface was covered completely at these experimental conditions.