Significance of the substrate temperature on the physical properties of RF sputtered Sb2Te3 thin films

Sb2Te3 thin films were grown by RF magnetron sputtering at a substrate temperature of 300 °C and 350 °C. The structural, morphological, optical and electrical properties were evaluated as a function of the substrate temperature. The structural analysis revealed that the thin films exhibited diffraction planes and Raman modes attributed to the rhombohedral phase of Sb2Te3. The results from the optical characterization indicated that the Sb2Te3 samples function exceptionally well as an absorber layer in the UV-Vis region. According to the morphological study, the thin films grew with densely packed grains, each measuring around 100 nm in size. A high carrier concentration on the order of 10 ¹⁹ cm ^-3 and a low electrical resistivity in the range of 10 ^-2 Ω∙cm were obtained in the Sb2Te3 material.