Compositional effect of antimony on structural, optical, and photoluminescence properties of chemically deposited (Cd1−xSbx)S thin films

• (Cd1−xSbx)S thin films were successfully deposited on glass substrate by chemical bath deposition.
• The structural properties of the deposited films were investigated by XRD.
• The crystallite size of the films was found to be increased with increasing doping concentration of Sb in pure CdS.
• The PL emission peak shifted towards longer wavelength region for higher concentration of doping.
• The band gap of the films was found to be decreased with doping.

(Cd1−xSbx)S thin films were deposited onto glass substrates by the chemical bath deposition. Systematic studies have been undertaken to investigate the effect of Sb composition on thin film properties of chemically deposited (Cd1−xSbx)S thin films. The films were characterized by using X-ray diffractometer (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), photoluminescence emission spectra and UV–VIS–NIR spectrophotometer. The XRD patterns reveal that these thin films have mixed phase of cubic CdS and orthorhombic Sb2S3 crystal structure. AFM images showed uniform deposition of the material over the entire glass substrate and rms roughness was also calculated. The energy band gap for thin films were revealed from the optical studies and were found to decrease from 2.41 eV to 2.20 eV with increasing Sb doping concentration. After annealing at 400 °C, the band gap is found to be increased in the range 2.51–2.26 eV. The photoluminescence emission spectra of the films shows two luminescence bands centered around 420 nm and 510 nm under 250 nm excitation.