Growth and characterization of pulse electrodeposited CuInSe2 thin films

CuInSe2 thin films were grown on SnO2-coated glass substrates using the pulse electrodeposition (PED) technique. The CuInSe2 films were grown at different potentials using pulses of different frequencies ranging from 1 KHz to 1 MHz. The electrodeposited films were annealed in vacuum at 300°C, for 1 hr, to improve the crystallinity. The annealed films were characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive Analysis of x-rays (EDAX), and UV-VIS-NIR spectra. The results show that the electrodeposited CuInSe2 films have good stoichiometry and are single phase with an optical gap around 1 eV. SEM studies show that the films grown using pulses of frequency 1 KHz contain nanoparticles of size 50–60 nm, whereas those grown using pulses of frequency 100 KHz and 1 MHz contain micronsized particles.