A new heterostructures fabrication technique and properties of produced SbSI/Sb2S3 heterostructures

•We proposed a new technique of heterostructure fabrication in compound semiconductors.•CO2 laser irradiation has been used to produce heterostructures.•Method has been tested on antimony sulfoiodide (SbSI).•SbSI/Sb2S3 crystalline/amorphous heterostructures have been fabricated.•Basic properties of fabricated heterostructures have been presented.

A new technique for heterostructure fabrication in semiconducting compounds has been proposed. Heterojunctions have been made by applying CO2 laser beam. In contradistinction to currently applied methods (MBE – Molecular Beam Epitaxy and CVD – Chemical Vapor Deposition) the presented technique is simple, of low-cost and very efficient. The new technique has been tested on antimony sulfoiodide (SbSI) single crystals, i.e., a semiconducting, ferroelectric material characterized by many valuable properties. The most important structural, optical and electrical properties of the obtained heterostructures have been presented. Studies have shown that in the CO2 laser treated samples the junction exists between SbSI single crystal and amorphous phase of antimony sulfide (Sb2S3). At room temperature difference between energy gaps of both parts of SbSI/Sb2S3 heterostructure is equal to 0.3 eV. This leads to many interesting phenomena and potential applications.