Compositional and Thickness Effects on the Optical Properties of Zinc– Doped Selenium–Antimony Thin Films

Authors

  • Austine A Mulama Department of Physics, University of Nairobi, 30197-00100, Nairobi Kenya
  • Julius M Mwabora Department of Physics, University of Nairobi, 30197-00100, Nairobi Kenya
  • Andrew O Oduor Department of Physics and Materials Science, Maseno University, 333-40105, Maseno Kenya
  • Cosmas M Muiva Department of Physics, Botswana International University of Science and Technology, 00741, Botswana

Abstract

Chalcogenide system of antimony (Sb)-selenium (Se)-zinc (Zn) system is a promising
semiconductor for phase change memory devices due to its thermal stability and low power
consumption. The study investigated the effect of film thickness and zinc content on the optical
properties of thermally evaporated Sb10Se90-xZnx (x = 0, 5, 10 & 15 at. %) thin films. It was found
that transmittance (T~ 85-40%) and optical band gap energy (Eopt ~ 1.60 eV – 1.22 eV) decreased
but absorption coefficient (α~0.840–2.031  104 cm–1) increased with increase in zinc content.
Furthermore, as the film thickness increased from 53  5 nm to 286  10 nm, transmittance
decreased but band gap energy increased due to zinc defects and localized states in the Sb 10Se90-
xZnx system.

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Published

2025-03-28

Issue

Vol. 44 No. 4 (2018)

Section

Articles