Electrodeposition of Snse Thin Film Semiconductor on Tin Substrate

Eulkarnain Zainal*, Ali Jimale, Anuar Kassim and Mohd. Zobir Hussein

Chemistry Department University Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor (Malaysia)

Tin selenide semiconductor film have been potentiostatically electrodeposited at room temperature from aqueous solution containing SnCl2 and Na2SeO3. Various deposition potentials were attempted in order to determine the optimum electrodeposition potential. The structure, morphology and the photo-activity of the electrosynthesised films were studied by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and linear sweep photovoltammetry (LSPV) technique. The bandgap energy and type of optical transition were determined from optical absorbance data. The XRD analysis indicated the formation of polycrystallline SnSe. SEM micrography showed the existence of a crystalline deposit, whose grain size strongly depend to the deposition potential. The films exhibited a p-type semiconductor behaviour with very good photosensitivity, optical absorbance in the visible light spectrum and band gap energy (Eg) of 1.0 eV.

Electrodeposition; Tin selenide semiconductor film