Preparation of antimony selenide thin films by electrochemical deposition and application in optoelectronic devices

Antimony selenide (Sb2Se3) has become a potential semiconductor material for a wide range of optoelectronic applications because of its unique one-dimensional crystal structure and corresponding excellent anisotropic optical and electronic properties. Herein, uniform and flat Sb2Se3 thin films with [hk1]-optimized growth orientation are prepared by adjusting the deposition potentials and selenization temperatures using a facile electrochemical deposition method. Then these films are applied in heterojunction-type photodetectors with the structure of Mo/Sb2Se3/CdS/ZnO/ITO/Ag. The best performances are obtained for devices with a deposition potential of −0.55 V and a selenization temperature of 300 °C. At 0 bias, the detector yielded a responsivity of 25.4 mA/W and a detectivity of 1.06 × 1011 Jones at 635 nm visible light with a light intensity of 5 mW. The results show that high-quality Sb2Se3 thin films can be prepared by electrochemical deposition under proper preparation conditions, which lays the foundation for the application of the electrochemical deposition method in the field of optoelectronic devices.