Effect of bath temperature on the electrodeposition of copper tin selenide films from aqueous solution

The effect of bath temperature on Cu2SnSe4 films prepared by electrodeposition was studied in this work. The structure, morphology and composition of the films were analysed by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive analysis of X-rays (EDAX). The band gap energy and type of optical transition were determined from optical absorbance data. The results showed that electrodeposition of Cu2SnSe4 films was most suitable to be obtained at room temperature. Increasing the bath temperature did not improve the crystallinity of Cu2SnSe4 compound, but to formation of binary phase, CuSe. EDAX studies showed that increasing the temperature resulted in drastic increase in Cu content and decrease in Sn content. The optical absorption studies showed the film deposited at room temperature has direct transition with band gap energy E-g of 1.2 eV. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.