Development of nanocrystalline ZnSe thin film through electrodeposition from a non-aqueous solution

A nanocrystalline thin film of ZnSe was successfully electrodeposited on a copper substrate using a non-aqueous solution. X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed the deposition of crystalline ZnSe with a 12 nm crystallite size. Scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy studies revealed a densely packed non-porous granular deposit. The Schottky diode characteristic corroborated a typical semiconducting behaviour of ZnSe deposit. The band gap (2.71 eV) obtained through spectroscopic analysis and the measured resistivity (1.5 Ω cm) were also in good agreement with the reported data of semiconducting ZnSe.