Structural characterization of Zn–In–Se thin films

Abstract

In this study, structural properties of the Zn–In–Se (ZIS) thin films deposited by thermal evaporation method were investigated. The as-grown and annealed ZIS films were found in polycrystalline structure with the main orientation in (112) direction. The compositional analysis of the films showed that they were in Zn-rich behavior and there was a slight change in the elemental contribution to the structure with annealing process. Raman analysis was carried out to determine the crystalline structure and the different vibration modes of ZIS thin films. According to these measurements, the highest Raman intensity was in the LO mode which was directly proportional to the crystallinity of the samples. The atomic force microscopy (AFM) analyses were done in order to obtain detailed information about the morphology of the thin film surface. The surface of the films was observed as nearly-smooth and uniform in as-grown and annealed forms. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements were analyzed to get detailed information about surface and near-surface characteristics of the films. The results from the surface and depth compositional analyses of the films showed quite good agreement with the energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis.