Structural characterization of “as-deposited” cesium iodide films studied by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy techniques

In the present work, cesium iodide (CsI) thin films of different thicknesses have been prepared by thermal evaporation technique. The crystallite size and grain size of these films are compared by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) profile analysis as well as by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) counting, respectively. These two methods provide less deviation between crystallite size and grain size in the case of thin CsI films of 4 nm, but there is comparatively large difference in case of thicker CsI films (20 nm, 100 nm and 500 nm). It indicates that dislocations are arranged in a configuration which causes small orientational difference between two adjacent coherent regions. The crystallite size obtained from XRD corresponds to the size of the coherent scattering region, whereas in TEM micrograph, single grain may correspond to many such coherent scattering regions. Other physical parameters such as strain, stress and deformation energy density are also estimated precisely for the prominent XRD peaks of thicker CsI films in the range 2 θ = 20 ° − 80 ° by using a modified Williamson–Hall (W–H) analysis assuming uniform deformation model (UDM), uniform deformation stress model (UDSM) and uniform deformation energy density model (UDEDM).