SIMPLIFIED CHEMICAL-DEPOSITION TECHNIQUE FOR GOOD QUALITY SNS THIN-FILMS

A chemical deposition technique, much simpler and more versatile than previously reported and capable of yielding good quality SnS films of thickness up to congruent-to 1.2-mu-m under a choice of deposition conditions, is presented. The as-prepared films are polycrystalline with p-type dark conductivity in the range 10(-5)-10(-4)-OMEGA-1cm-1 for the thicker (approximately 1-mu-m) films and showing a photocurrent to dark current ratio of 5-10 under 500 W m-2 tungsten halogen illumination. The optical transmittance and reflectance spectra and the photocurrent response curves of a series of SnS samples are explicitly presented to provide insight into possible applications of these films.