Abstract
Nanocrystalline cubic zinc sulfide (C-ZnS) thin films have been elaborated by sol–gel spin-coating of Zn(Ac)/thiourea starting precursors at different molar ratios, and their structural, morphological, compositional, optical, electrical, and photoluminescence properties comprehensively investigated. x-ray diffraction results showed that the samples had dominant cubic structure and their crystallinity improved with increasing S content. Morphological characterization of the C-ZnS thin films was carried out by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), revealing that the films were smooth with spherical grains included in clusters. Energy-dispersive x-ray and Fourier-transform infrared spectra of ZnS compounds did not show any evidence of impurities. Optical characterization revealed increases of the average optical transmittance and bandgap (from 3.2 eV to 3.56 eV) with increasing S content. The refractive index in the visible region increased with the S content, while the extinction coefficient decreased. The compositional dependence of the optical dispersion parameters (oscillator and dispersion energy), dielectric constant, and surface energy loss function of the films was evaluated. Electrical characterization of the films was carried out using Hall-effect measurements. The ZnS thin films exhibited n-type conductivity, and the electrical resistivity decreased with increasing carrier concentration and mobility due to enhanced crystallite size and reduced structural disorder. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements indicated a blue-shift of the near-band-edge emission. The blue emission peaks centered at about 438 nm and 487 nm were enhanced due to transitions involving interstitial S atoms, surface states, and zinc vacancies.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
C.B. Murray, C. Kagan, and M. Bawendi, Annu. Rev. Mater. Res. 30, 545 (2000).
V.I. Klimov, A. Mikhailovsky, S. Xu, A. Malko, J. Hollingsworth, C. Leatherdale, H.-J. Eisler, and M. Bawendi, Science 290, 314 (2000).
Q. Xiong, G. Chen, J. Acord, X. Liu, J. Zengel, H. Gutierrez, J. Redwing, L. Lew Yan Voon, B. Lassen, and P. Eklund, Nano Lett. 4, 1663 (2004).
K. Roy Choudhury, Y. Sahoo, and P.N. Prasad, Adv. Mater. 17, 2877 (2005).
N.K. Allouche, T.B. Nasr, N.T. Kamoun, and C. Guasch, Mater. Chem. Phys. 123, 620 (2010).
S. Tec-Yam, J. Rojas, V. Rejón, and A. Oliva, Mater. Chem. Phys. 136, 386 (2012).
H. Lekiket and M. Aida, Mater. Sci. Semicond. Process. 16, 1753 (2013).
I. Ahemen, F. Dejene, B. Viana, P. Aschehoug, and E. Odoh, Mater. Chem. Phys. 184, 250 (2016).
W. Liu, Mater. Lett. 60, 551 (2006).
S. Scott and H. Barnes, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 36, 1275 (1972).
W.G. Becker and A.J. Bard, J. Phys. Chem. 87, 4888 (1983).
W. Chen, Z. Wang, Z. Lin, and L. Lin, J. Appl. Phys. 82, 3111 (1997).
A. Kole, P. Kumbhakar, and U. Chatterjee, Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 013103 (2012).
S. Chan, S. Lok, G. Wang, Y. Cai, N. Wang, K. Wong, and I. Sou, J. Electron. Mater. 37, 1433 (2008).
O. Echendu, A. Weerasinghe, D. Diso, F. Fauzi, and I. Dharmadasa, J. Electron. Mater. 42, 692 (2013).
S. Kumar and N. Verma, J. Electron. Mater. 44, 2829 (2015).
O. Echendu and I. Dharmadasa, J. Electron. Mater. 43, 791 (2014).
N. Fathy and M. Ichimura, Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells 87, 747 (2005).
R. Sahraei and S. Darafarin, J. Lumin. 149, 170 (2014).
A. Goudarzi, G.M. Aval, R. Sahraei, and H. Ahmadpoor, Thin Solid Films 516, 4953 (2008).
Y.-J. Lin and W.-S. Ni, J. Lumin. 172, 286 (2016).
H.V. Bui, V.B. Pham, S.D. Le, and N.N. Hoang, J. Lumin. 178, 134 (2016).
A. Ates, M.A. Yıldırım, M. Kundakcı, and A. Astam, Mater. Sci. Semicond. Process. 10, 281 (2007).
G.S. Lotey, Z. Jindal, V. Singhi, and N. Verma, Mater. Sci. Semicond. Process. 16, 2044 (2013).
M.M.H. Farooqi and R.K. Srivastava, Mater. Sci. Semicond. Process. 20, 61 (2014).
W. Gao, M. Cao, W. Xiao, F. Lei, J. Huang, Y. Sun, L. Wang, and Y. Shen, Mater. Sci. Semicond. Process. 56, 349 (2016).
Z.Y. Zhong, E.S. Cho, and S.J. Kwon, Mater. Chem. Phys. 135, 287 (2012).
P.U. Bhaskar, G.S. Babu, Y.K. Kumar, Y. Jayasree, and V.S. Raja, Mater. Chem. Phys. 134, 1106 (2012).
A. Wei, J. Liu, M. Zhuang, and Y. Zhao, Mater. Sci. Semicond. Process. 16, 1478 (2013).
H. Ke, S. Duo, T. Liu, Q. Sun, C. Ruan, X. Fei, J. Tan, and S. Zhan, Mater. Sci. Semicond. Process. 18, 28 (2014).
L.-X. Shao, K.-H. Chang, and H.-L. Hwang, Appl. Surf. Sci. 212, 305 (2003).
S. Yano, R. Schroeder, B. Ullrich, and H. Sakai, Thin Solid Films 423, 273 (2003).
X. Fang, T. Zhai, U.K. Gautam, L. Li, L. Wu, Y. Bando, and D. Golberg, Prog. Mater. Sci. 56, 175 (2011).
T. Safeera, N. Johns, E. Anila, A.I. Martinez, P. Sreenivasan, R. Reshmi, M. Sudhanshu, and M. Jayaraj, J. Anal. Appl. Pyrolysis 115, 96 (2015).
I.Y. Bu, J. Lumin. 134, 423 (2013).
M. Nilkar, F. Ghodsi, and A.A. Ziabari, Appl. Phys. A 118, 1377 (2015).
I. Khan and I. Ahmad, Int. J. Quantum Chem. 113, 1285 (2013).
Z. Wen-Chena, L. Weia, and W. Shao-Yia, J. Lumin. 81, 149 (1999).
J.A. Tossell, Inorg. Chem. 16, 2944 (1977).
M. Safari, Z. Izadi, J. Jalilian, I. Ahmad, and S. Jalali-Asadabadi, Phys. Lett. A 381, 663 (2017).
M. Ashokkumar and S. Muthukumaran, Opt. Mater. 37, 671 (2014).
S. Kumar, H. Jeon, T. Kang, R. Singh, J. Sharma, and R.K. Choubey, J. Mater. Sci. Mater. Electron. 26, 3939 (2015).
K. Raja, P. Ramesh, and D. Geetha, Spectrochim. Acta Part A 131, 183 (2014).
D.A. Reddy, C. Liu, R. Vijayalakshmi, and B. Reddy, J. Alloys Compd. 582, 257 (2014).
S. Kawar and B. Pawar, J. Mater. Sci. Mater. Electron. 21, 906 (2010).
R. Swanepoel, J. Phys. E Sci. Instrum. 16, 1214 (1983).
F. Jenkins and H. White, Fundamentals of Optics, 4th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973), p. 479.
W. Daranfed, M. Aida, A. Hafdallah, and H. Lekiket, Thin Solid Films 518, 1082 (2009).
J. Tauc, Amorphous and Liquid Semiconductors, 1st ed. (New York: Plenum, 1974).
M. DrDomenico Jr. and S. Wemple, J. Appl. Phys. 40, 720 (1969).
A. Walton and T. Moss, Proc. Phys. Soc. 81, 509 (1963).
A.A. Ziabari and F. Ghodsi, Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells 105, 249 (2012).
M. Cardona and Y.Y. Peter, Fundamentals of Semiconductors (New York: Springer, 2005).
D. Denzler, M. Olschewski, and K. Sattler, J. Appl. Phys. 84, 2841 (1998).
L. Yang, Y. Tang, and S. Zhao, J. Sol-Gel. Sci. Technol. 53, 56 (2010).
X. Fang, Y. Bando, U.K. Gautam, T. Zhai, H. Zeng, X. Xu, M. Liao, and D. Golberg, Crit. Rev. Solid State Mater. Sci. 34, 190 (2009).
Q. Wu, H. Cao, S. Zhang, X. Zhang, and D. Rabinovich, Inorg. Chem. 45, 7316 (2006).
E. Mosquera and N. Carvajal, Mater. Lett. 129, 8 (2014).
Z. Li, J. Wang, X. Xu, and X. Ye, Mater. Lett. 62, 3862 (2008).
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge University of Guilan Research Council for support of this work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rahimzadeh, N., Ghodsi, F.E. & Mazloom, J. Effects of Starting Precursor Ratio on Optoelectrical Properties and Blue Emission of Nanostructured C-ZnS Thin Films Prepared by Spin Coating. J. Electron. Mater. 47, 1107–1116 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-017-5874-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-017-5874-1