Structural and Optical Studies of Stepwise Flash Evaporated AgIn3Te5 Thin Films

AgIn3Te5 thin films have been grown on glass substrates by stepwise flash evaporation. Powder sample to bulk AgIn3Te5 has been used as source material. Bulk AgIn3Te5 has been synthesized by melt-quench technique, starting from the stoichiometric mixture of constituent elements. Phase homogeneity and crystal structure of thin films have been investigated X-ray diffraction. The film grown at room temperature has showed amorphous nature while the film deposited at 673 K has exhibited crystalline nature. Analysis of X-ray powder diffraction data of thin films has revealed that the films have crystallized in P-chalocpyrife structure with space group P (4) over bar 2c. The lattice parameters are calculated to be a = 6.243 angstrom and c = 12.504 angstrom, close to that found in bulk AgIn3Te5. Analysis of optical transmittance data of thin film grown at 673 k has yielded band-gap value around 1.06 eV.