Preparation and characterization of electrodeposited Sb2Se3 thin films

Thin films of Sb2Se3 have been electrodeposited from an aqueous acidic bath at room temperature using selenium dioxide as a selenium ion source. The electrodeposition potentials for different bath compositions and concentrations of solution are estimated from the polarization curves. It has been found that SbCl3 and SeO2 in the volumetric proportion as 9 : 1 and their equimolar solutions of 0.0075 M form a good quality films. The films are annealed in a nitrogen atmosphere at 200°C for 1 h. The films are characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and optical absorption techniques. The XRD patterns of the films show that the as-deposited and annealed films are polycrystalline. The optical band gap energy for direct transition in Sb2Se3 thin films is found to be 1.55 eV.