Impact of deposition temperature on carrier transportation of sprayed (040) oriented tin sulfide thin films for photovoltaic applications

Abstract

Sprayed thin coatings of tin sulphide (SnS) onto glass substrates utilizing tin chloride dehydrate and CS (NH₂)₂ as precursors, in various substrate temperatures (250–325 °C) in steps of 25 °C. The physical properties were studied for all the as prepared SnS thin films. The increased substrate temperature on the film shows the increased crystallinity along orthorhombic nature of (040) plane. The Debye-Scherer formula was used to determine the crystallite’s size, which ranged from 20 to 29 nm. The morphological, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and 3D AFM micrographs were characterized to find the morphology and surface roughness of thin film. Optical transmittance spectra (500 nm–1100 nm) revealed that all films had direct band gap values with appropriate range of photo voltaic applications. In the FT-IR spectrum’s absorption band, the characteristic stretching vibration mode of SnS thin films were analysed. The film developed at 325 °C had the lowest electrical resistivity of 4.28 Ω cm with a hole concentration of around 10¹³ cm⁻³. As the temperature of growth of the thin film increased, the resistance rapidly reduced.