Structural, thermal and electrical properties of the semiconductor system Ag(1−x)CuxInSe2 Review Article

This paper presents a study of bulk samples synthesized of the Ag1−xCuxInSe2 semiconductor system. Structural, thermal and electrical properties, as a function of the nominal composition (Cu content) x=0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0 were studied. The influence of x on parameters such as melting temperature, solid phase transition temperature, lattice parameters, bond lengths, crystallite size t (coherent domain), electrical resistivity, electrical mobility and majority carrier concentration was analyzed. The electrical parameters are analyzed at room temperature. In general, it is observed that the properties of the Ag1−xCuxInSe2 system for x≤0.4 are dominated by n-AgInSe2, while for x>0.4, these are in the domain of p-CuInSe2. The crystallite size t in the whole composition range (x) is of the order of the nanoparticles. Secondary phases (CuSe, Ag2Se and InSe) in small proportion were identified by XRD and DTA.