Preparation and characterization of CuSn, CuZr, SnZr and CuSnZr thin films deposited by SILAR method

CuSn, CuZr, SnZr and CuSnZr thin films are synthesized by Successive Ionic Layer Adsorption and Reaction method on glass substrate with equal concentrations (1:1) of cationic and anionic solutions. Thicknesses of the films are measured by gravimetric method, which corroborate the effective critical thickness is presented at 0.1 M concentration samples. The structural properties of the thin films are identified by X-ray diffraction analysis which depicts CuSn and CuZr are amorphous in nature and remaining SnZr and CuSnZr films are cubic. The optical absorption studies show all the films are active in ultraviolet region. In which, CuSn, CuZr and SnZr shows sharp negative absorption peaks at 298 nm, 296 nm and 301 nm respectively. In contrast, CuSnZr thin film shows positive upward absorption peak at 305 nm. The band gap energy for CuSn, CuZr, SnZr and CuSnZr thin films are found to be 3.96, 3.91, 3.90 and 3.65 eV respectively. Except for CuSn thin film, all the film shows combination of spherical particles with the sizes of 35-40 nm in scanning electron microscopy analysis and supports the Transmission Electron Microscopy analysis. The chemical composition ratios of the prepared thin films are identified by Energy dispersive X-ray analysis.