SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF COBALT DOPED ANTIMONY SULFIDE THIN FILMS FOR SOLAR ENERGY APPLICATIONS

Abstract

Here in this research, we have prepared Cobalt-doped antimony sulfide thin films using Chemical Bath Deposition (CBD) method on the glass substrate and analyzed the impact of concentration on physical properties of prepared thin films by annealing them at 250 ⁰C for two hours.  Structural analysis from X-ray diffraction (XRD) revealed that the films were polycrystalline in nature with orthorhombic phase and its crystallite size decrease from 19 to 10 nm. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed surface morphology and grain growth of prepared thin film which were improved with increasing cobalt concentration. Raman vibration mode confirmed the presence of the antimony sulfide phase in the prepared thin films and showed that their Raman spectra are unevenly dominated by stretching vibration modes n(Sb-S). The annealed Sb₂S₃ thin films exhibited energy band gap values of 0.56 - 0.95 eV. The pure and Co-doped antimony sulfide thin films showed high absorption coefficient of about 10⁴ cm^-1 indicating Co-doped antimony sulfide thin films are suitable for solar cell applications.