THE EFFECT OF THICKNESS ON STRUCTURAL PROPERTIES OF CuAlS2 THIN FILMS BY THERMAL EVAPORATION TECHNIQUE

A.U. Moreh¹, M. Momoh¹, H.N. Yahya¹, K.U. Isah² and B. Hamza¹

¹Department of Physics, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria

²Department of Physics, Federal University of Technology Minna, Niger State, Nigeria

E-mail: abumoreh@yahoo.co.uk

ABSTRACT

In this work, CuAlS₂ thin films of different thickness were deposited on corning 7059 glass substrate by two stages. In the first stage Cu-Al precursors were grown at room temperature by thermal evaporation and in the second stage Cu-Al precursors were converted to CuAlS₂ thin films by sulfurisation under sulfur atmosphere. The structural properties studied by means of XRD revealed that the films were of crystalline nature having tetragonal structure. For all the films the preferential orientation is (112), while the other orientation like (220) was also observed in the films depending upon the thickness of the films. The values of lattice constants, a and c agree strongly with ICDD data. Similarly, micro strain, dislocation density and grain size were found to be thickness dependent.