Structure and optical properties of GeGaS films deposited by thermal evaporation

Amorphous GeGaS thin films have been successfully deposited onto glass slides at room temperature by the thermal evaporation technique. The structural units of the films were studied using Raman spectroscopy. In addition to the basic structural units of GeS4 tetrahedra, there are some SS and GeGe homopolar bonds which exist in the films. The increase in Ge atoms leads to the replacement of SS bonds by GeGe bonds, and the isolated Ge(Ga)S4 tetrahedra units transform into corner-sharing or edge-sharing Ge(Ga)S4 tetrahedra units in the films. The refractive index and optical band gap were derived from transmission spectra of films. The values of optical band gap decrease while the refractive indices increase with increasing Ge content. Composition dependence of optical band gap and refractive index has also been interpreted in terms of the variation in the structure of films based on Raman spectra.