Effect of the film thickness on the optical constants and dispersion parameters of chalcogenide Ge20Se70Ag10 thin film

Chalcogenide thin films of Ge20Se70Ag10 of thicknesses 150, 300 and 450 nm are prepared by a thermal evaporation technique. The crystalline phases of the deposited film are identified by X-ray diffraction. The transmittance and reflectance of the films are measured in the wavelength range 200–2500 nm. The optical band gap decreases while the width of the localized states tail increases with increasing film thickness. Variation of refractive index and extinction coefficient with the film thickness is studied to analyze the optical efficiency of these films. Application of the single oscillator model to the films reveals that the oscillator energy decreases while the dispersion energy increases with increasing thickness. The variation of the optical constants suggests that the thickness change is a good choice to control the optical properties of Ge20Se70Ag10 film.