Influence of film thickness variation on the photo electrochemical cell performances of Ag3SbS3 thin films

In this study, ternary chalcogenide Ag3SbS3 thin films were prepared using the vacuum thermal evaporation method and varying the evaporation time. Film thicknesses were measured by the Swanepoel method and it is found to be 254 nm, 447 nm and 700 nm. In order to analyze the structural, morphological and opto-structural properties of the films, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (DRS) and Photo I-V techniques were used. The XRD results show phase pure monoclinic structure for all the films and its crystallite sizes were found to be 20 nm, 25 nm and 57 nm for film thicknesses 254 nm, 447 nm and 700 nm, respectively. AFM images show that the particles are grown in same axis with densely packed pyramid like structure. The polycrystalline films have higher optical absorption in the visible region with band-gaps of 1.92 eV, 1.74 eV and 1.58 eV The photo I-V and J-V plots indicate that all the films are photoconductive in nature.