A comparative study on the electronic and optical properties of Sb₂Se₃ thin film

The thin film of Sb₂Se₃ was deposited by thermal evaporation method and the film was annealed in N₂ flow in a three zone furnace at a temperature of 290°С for 30 min. The structural properties were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy, respectively. It is seen that the as-deposited film is amorphous and the annealed film is polycrystalline in nature. The surface of Sb₂Se₃ film is oxidized with a thickness of 1.15 nm investigated by X-ray photolecetron spectroscopy (XPS) measurement. Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) and UV–vis spectroscopy measurements were carried out to study the optical properties of Sb₂Se₃ film. In addition, the first principles calculations were applied to study the electronic and optical properties of Sb₂Se₃. From the theoretical calculation it is seen that Sb₂Se₃ is intrinsically an indirect band gap semiconductor. Importantly, the experimental band gap is in good agreement with the theoretical band gap. Furthermore, the experimental values of n, k, ε₁, and ε₂ are much closer to the theoretical results. However, the obtained large dielectric constants and refractive index values suggest that exciton binding energy in Sb₂Se₃ should be relatively small and an antireflective coating is recommended to enhance the light absorption of Sb₂Se₃ for thin film solar cells application.