Effect of substrate temperature on copper antimony sulphide thin films from thermal evaporation

• Solvothermally synthesized CuSbS2 bulk material used as an evaporant source.
• Copper Antimony Sulfide thin films were deposited by Physical vapour deposition.
• Effect on various substrate temperature on thin films was investigated.
• Needle like morphology was observed at 200 °C.
• Optical and Electrical properties of the CAS thin films were analysed.

Copper antimony Sulfide (CAS) thin films were deposited on glass substrate using thermal evaporation technique at different substrate temperatures. Using CuCl2.2H2O, SbCl3 and thiourea as parental materials, the evaporant source material was synthesized by solvothermal method. Moreover, phase identification using X-Ray diffraction was made after the removal of by-products. The CuSbS2 bulk material was pelletized using hydraulic press and used as a target material for developing CAS films on glass substrate with different substrate temperatures such as, Room Temperature (without substrate temperature), 100 °C, 200 °C, 300 °C and 400 °C. The source material and the deposited CAS films were subjected to X-ray diffraction analysis, Raman spectroscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy, X-Ray Photo Electron Spectroscopy, Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectral analysis and UV–Vis Spectroscopy. Hall Effect measurement was carried out to investigate, whether the CAS films exhibits p-type conductivity. The deposited films were found to have the band gap in the range of 2.18 eV and 1.62 eV.