Solution growth and characterization of amorphous selenium thin ®lms
Heat transformation to nanocrystalline gray selenium thin ®lms
Biljana Pejova*, Ivan Grozdanov
Institute of Chemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Sts. Cyril and Methodius University,
PO Box 162, Arhimedova 5, 91000 Skopje, Macedonia
Received 24 August 2000; accepted 31 January 2001
Abstract
A novel solution growth methodology for fabrication of amorphous, red selenium thin ®lms and their conversion to the hexagonal, gray modi®cation is presented. The method is based on deposition process from aqueous solution of selenosulfate by citric or ascorbic acid as oxidizing agents. The X-ray diffraction method is used for identi®cation of the deposited materials. Ultra-thin ®lms of both amorphous and hexagonal selenium are highly transparent in the Vis±NIR spectral region.
# 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PACS: 81.15.-z; 81.05.Cy
Keywords: Selenium thin ®lm; Solution growth method; Optical band gap energy
1. Introduction
In recent years, the thin ®lms of inorganic semiconductor materials are of considerable interest in the
®eld of science and technology. Many techniques for fabrication of thin ®lms of these materials have been developed, such as solution growth, electrodeposition, physical vapor deposition, chemical vapor deposition, spray pyrolysis, etc. The solution growth technique
(also known as chemical bath deposition, electroless plating or controlled precipitation) is the simplest and most economical one. It does not require sophisticated
*
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: biljana@iunona.pmf.ukim.edu.mk (B. Pejova).
instrumentation, is convenient for both small- and large-area deposition, any kind of shape or size of the substrates can be used and the starting chemicals are commonly available and cheap materials.
Following the current trends in microelectronics
materials,
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