EFFECT OF ANTIMONY VARIATION ON THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF THERMALLY DEPOSITED SnS THIN FILMS

Antimony doped tin sulphide thin films were prepared on glass substrate from SnS and Sb2S3 powder by thermal evaporation techniques. The thin films were annealed in argon gas at 250 degrees C for 30 minutes. The films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical microscopy, optical absorption, photoconductivity, and hot-probe techniques. The XRD studies revealed that the annealed films are polycrystalline. The band gap was found to be in the range 2.2-2.6eV along with p-type conductivity. The value of the absorption coefficient is found to be higher than 10(5) cm(-1).