Deposition and characterization of Ga2Se3 thin films prepared by a novel chemical close-spaced vapour transport technique

Single-phase Ga2Se3 films have been deposited with a growth rate of about 30 nm min(-1) on clean and Mo-coated soda-lime glass substrates by chemical close-spaced vapour transport. The use of HCl/H-2 as a transport agent results in a stoichiometric volatilization of the binary Ga2Se3 powder source material and the growth of Ga2Se3 films with reproducible composition. The films have been characterized using x-ray diffraction measurements, scanning electron microscopy observations, energy dispersive x-ray analysis, x-ray fluorescence spectrometry and elastic recoil detection analysis. A p-type conductivity was determined by means of the thermoelectric probe method. A Ga2Se3 band gap energy E-g=2.56 eV has been found by optical measurements.