Growth of heteroepitaxial AgInSe2 layers on Si (100) substrates by hot wall method

AgInSe2 films have been prepared onto the Si (100) substrate at 135 degrees C by hot wall method at pressure of 10(-5) m bar. Hot wall technique was used to prepare AgInSe2 films which work close to thermodynamic equilibrium and considered as most suitable for growth at low temperatures. The structural and optical properties of hot wall grown AgInSe2 films has been studied. X ray diffraction pattern indicate that the prepared films appear to be highly oriented in (400) direction suggesting epitaxial growth. The band gap calculated from reflectance data is found to be 1.36 and 2.11 eV which is assigned to the fundamental absorption edge and transition originating from crystal field splitting, respectively. The crystallite size of 99 nm has been obtained. Our result may be of interest for better understanding of epitaxial growth of chalcopyrite films at low temperature.