Investigation of the Structural, Optical and Electrical Properties of Copper Selenide Thin Films

Copper selenide (CuSe) thin films were prepared by chemical bath deposition (CBD) method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was used to study the structure and crystallite size of CuSe thin film. The grain size and the surface morphology were studied using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). The optical properties were studied using the UV-Visible transmission spectrum. The dielectric properties of the synthesized CuSe thin films were studied at different frequencies and different temperatures. Further, electronic properties, such as valence electron plasma energy, average energy gap or Penn gap, Fermi energy and electronic polarizability of the CuSe thin films were determined. The AC electrical conductivity study revealed that the conduction depended both on the frequency and the temperature. The temperature dependent conductivity study confirmed the semiconducting nature of the films. Photoconductivity measurements were carried out in order to ascertain the positive photoconductivity of the CuSe Thin films. This paper covers what all has been stated above besides discussing the results of I-V characteristics.