Growth of crystalline HgCr2S4 thin films at mild reaction conditions

Thin films of crystalline HgCr2S4 have been deposited on glass substrates at low temperature as low as 65 °C using a chemical bath deposition method. Typical thickness of the deposited HgCr2S4 thin films was 264 nm.The films were composed of closely packed irregular grains of 165–175 nm in diameter. The X-ray diffraction analysis and the selected area electron diffraction analysis revealed the deposited thin films were polycrystalline with highly (2 2 0) preferential orientation. The films exhibit a pure faint black. Their direct band gap energy was 2.39 eV with room temperature electrical resistivity of the order of 10−3 Ω cm.