Effect of Al doping on the structural and optical properties of electrodeposited SnS thin films

Al-doped SnS thin films with different Al concentrations were deposited on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate from aqueous solution containing 2mM SnCl2 and 20mM Na2S2O3 and various amounts of 5mM AlCl3 solution. The pH, temperature, time, and deposition potential (E) of the solution were kept at 2.1, 60 degrees C, 30 min and -1V, respectively. The deposited films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), photoluminescence (PL), and UV-Vis. XRD patterns obviously indicated that the synthesized Al-doped SnS were polycrystalline with orthorhombic structure and by increasing the amount of Al concentration, the crystallinity was increased. The FESEM images showed that the morphology of the nanostructures was changed with increasing Al content. PL and UV-Vis analysis were used to investigate the optical properties of materials. The PL spectra showed a red shift with increasing of Al concentration. (C) 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim