Atomic Layer Deposition of Conducting CuS Thin Films from Elemental Sulfur

A facile, yet precisely controlled and efficient atomic layer deposition (ALD) process is reported for high-quality copper(II) sulfide thin films based on elemental solid sulfur as the source for sulfur; Cu(acac)2 (acac: acetylacetonate) is used as the copper precursor. In the deposition temperature range as low as 140-160 °C, the process proceeds in an essentially ideal ALD manner and yields single-phase CuS thin films with appreciably high growth rate of ≈4 Å per cycle. When the deposition temperature is increased above 160 °C the growth rate considerably increases and flake-like nanostructures evolve. All the as-deposited films are crystalline, highly conducting, and specularly reflecting. Seebeck coefficient measurements confirm the p-type conducting nature of the films. The direct optical bandgap as determined from UV-vis spectroscopic measurements varies in the range of 2.40-2.54 eV, depending on the deposition temperature.

Keywords

Atomic layer deposition, Copper(II) sulfide, Sulfur, Thin film

DOI

10.1002/admi.201701366

Citation

Tripathi , T S , Lahtinen , J & Karppinen , M 2018 , ' Atomic Layer Deposition of Conducting CuS Thin Films from Elemental Sulfur ' , Advanced Materials Interfaces , vol. 5 , no. 9 , 1701366 . https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.201701366

Permanent link to this item

https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-201904022528

Collections

[article-cris] Kemian tekniikan korkeakoulu / CHEM

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