The impact of annealing on the optoelectronic properties of tin selenide thin films for photovoltaics

In this study, Tin selenide (SnSe) was prepared via thermal evaporation from tin ingots and selenium powder followed by annealing at 250°C in an inert atmosphere of Argon gas. Two samples were used for characterization purposes, as-deposited and annealed. The structural parameters including particle size, strain, dislocation density, and number of crystallites per unit area were calculated from XRD while the optical properties including band gap were extracted from UV-visible spectroscopy. Four probe techniques were used to measure the electrical properties.