An Energy Efficient Way to Produce Zinc-Based Semiconductor Thin Films via Chemical Bath Deposition Technique

Abstract

In this study, zinc oxide, zinc sulfide and zinc selenide semiconductor thin films were produced by Chemical Bath Deposition technique with and without annealing. The structural, surface and optical properties of the obtained thin films were determined to specify effect of annealing on thin film properties. Characterization results indicated that, the produced zinc-based thin films have polycrystalline nature. Both zinc sulfide and zinc selenide thin films have cubic and zinc oxide thin films have hexagonal structure. The surface morphologies of all thin films are homogeneous and compact. The optical band gap values of the obtained thin films are close to the band gap of zinc-based semiconductors. The annealing processes neither improved the crystal structures nor altered the band gap values of zinc-based thin films. Agreeable to characterization results, production of zinc-based thin films via chemical bath deposition technique without annealing is facile, economic and energy efficient so can be used for many thin film applications.

Keywords

• Solar cells
• Thin films
• Chemical bath deposition
• Semiconductors.