Structural, optical and electrical properties of Cu2FeSnX4 (X = S, Se) thin films prepared by chemical spray pyrolysis

• CFTS(Se) thin films have been synthesized by low-cost spray-based deposition.
• The fabricated films were found to be of stannite structure and p-type conductivity.
• Band gaps of CFTS and CFTSe thin films are 1.37 and 1.11 eV, respectively.

We report on fabrication of polycrystalline Cu2FeSnX4 (X = S, Se) thin films by chemical spray pyrolysis subsequent with post-sulfurization and selenization. The post-annealing of as-sprayed Cu2FeSnS4 (CFTS) films in sulfur and selenium ambient demonstrated drastically improved surface texture as well as crystallinity. The crystal lattice parameters calculated from X-ray diffraction patterns for post-annealed films were found to be consistent with stannite structure. The fabricated Cu2FeSnS4 (CFTS) and Cu2FeSnSe4 (CFTSe) films showed p-type conductivity with carrier concentration in the range of 1021 cm−3 and mobility ∼1–5 cm2 V−1 s−1. The band gap energies of post-sulfurized CFTS and post-selenized CFTSe films were estimated to be ∼1.37 eV and ∼1.11 eV with an error of ±0.02 eV by UV–Vis absorption, respectively, which are promising for photovoltaic application.

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