Preparation of Sb2Se3-based ceramics and glass-ceramics from native thin films deposited on Kapton foil

Amorphous Sb2Se3 thin films (200-1500 nm) deposited on Kapton foil were crystallized in controlled environment using the method of direct calorimetric measurement of thin films. X-ray diffraction was used to determine the intensity of the 1D (Sb4Sb6)n ribbons preferential orientation in dependence on the processing conditions: film thickness, energy flux during the pulsed laser deposition (PLD), heating rate, low and high temperature annealing. Lower PLD energy flux combined with higher deposited film thickness (1500 nm) led to increased orientation in the [2 2 1] direction, which is favorable for thin film solar cells application. Raman spectroscopy showed that thermally induced crystallization produces oxide-free Sb2Se3 thin films. Description of the crystallization kinetics led to very accurate kinetic predictions for the isothermal annealing conditions suitable for preparation of glass-ceramics with defined amount of crystalline phase - the predictions were accurate to similar to 10% of the true (experimentally determined) value.