Synthesis and characterization of thermally evaporated Cu2SnSe3 ternary semiconductor

• Copper Tin Selenide (CuSnSe) was mechanically alloyed.
• Thin films were deposited by thermal evaporation.
• X-ray analyzed data revealed that Cu2SnSe3 has a cubic structure.
• The absorption coefficient of the films is 105 cm−1 and their estimated band gap is 0.94 eV.

Copper Tin Selenide (CuSnSe) powder was mechanically alloyed by high energy planetary ball milling, starting from elemental powders. Synthesis time and velocity have been optimized to produce Cu2SnSe3 materials. Thin films were prepared by thermal evaporation on Corning glass substrate at Ts = 300 °C. The structural, compositional, morphological and optical properties of the synthesized semiconductor have been analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy. The analyzed powder exhibited a cubic crystal structure, with the presence of Cu2Se as a secondary phase. On the other hand, the deposited films showed a cubic Cu2SnSe3 ternary phase and extra peaks belonging to some binary compounds. Furthermore, optical measurements showed that the deposited layers have a relatively high absorption coefficient of 105 cm−1 and present a band gap of 0.94 eV.