Annealing effects on structural, optical and electrical properties of e-beam evaporated CuIn0.5Ga0.5Te2 thin films

CuIn0.5Ga0.5Te2 (CIGT) thin films have been prepared by e-beam evaporation from a single crystal powder synthesized by direct reaction of constituent elements in a stoichiometric proportion. Post-depositional annealing has been carried out at 300 and 350 °C. The compositions of the films were determined by energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDXA) and it was found that there was a remarkable fluctuation in atomic percentage of the constituent elements following to the post-depositional annealing. X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) has shown that as-grown films were amorphous in nature and turned into polycrystalline structure following to the annealing at 300 °C. The main peaks of CuIn0.5Ga0.5Te2 and some minor peaks belonged to a binary phase Cu2Te appeared after annealing at 300 °C, whereas for the films annealed at 350 °C single phase of the CuIn0.5Ga0.5Te2 chalcopyrite structure was observed with the preferred orientation along the (1 1 2) plane. The effect of annealing on and near surface regions has been studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results indicated that there was a considerable variation in surface composition following to the annealing process. The transmission and reflection measurements have been carried out in the wavelength range of 200–1100 nm. The absorption coefficients of the films were found to be in the order of 104 cm−1 and optical band gaps were determined as 1.39, 1.43 and 1.47 eV for as-grown and films annealed at 300 and 350 °C, respectively. The temperature dependent conductivity and photoconductivity measurements have been performed in the temperature range of −73 to 157 °C and the room temperature resistivities were found to be around 3.4 × 107 and 9.6 × 106 (Ω cm) for the as-grown and annealed films at 350 °C, respectively.