Structural and optical analyses of polycrystalline Zn1−xSbxSe thin films prepared by resistive heating technique

• Growth and characterization of Zn1−xSbxSe (0 ⩽ x ⩾ 0.15) thin films by thermal evaporation technique.
• XRD analysis showed the growth of cubic polycrystalline structure along (1 1 1) plane.
• Structural variation was also confirmed by employing Raman spectroscopy.
• Energy band gap was tuned from 1.81 eV to 1.61 eV with the increase in Sb content.
• All results showed that Sb content has strong influence on physical properties of ZnSe thin films.

Here we report the influence of Sb doping on the structural and optical properties of Zn1−xSbxSe (0 ⩽ x ⩾ 0.15) thin films prepared by thermal evaporation technique on glass substrate. Various characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), EDS, Raman spectroscopy and spectroscopic ellipsometer are employed to assess the structural and optical properties of the deposited films. XRD analysis reveals the formation of polycrystalline cubic structure having preferred growth orientation along (1 1 1) plane without any evidence of secondary phases. Crystallographic parameters like grain size, micro strain, dislocation density, number of crystallites per unit area and texture coefficient point out the structural modification in ZnSe films with Sb inclusion. Raman analysis shows the existence of three 1LO, 2LO and 3LO phonon modes at 251, 511 and 745 cm−1 in pure ZnSe while 3LO mode disappears by the incorporation of Sb atoms in ZnSe matrix. Increase in FWHM of Raman peaks with Sb concentration also indicates the change in crystalline quality of ZnSe films which is in accordance with our XRD results. Spectroscopic ellipsometry results demonstrate a decreasing trend for the optical band gap energy (from 2.61 eV to 1.81 eV) with increasing Sb content.