Influence of Grain Size on the Band-gap of Annealed SnS Thin Films

TL;DR

This study investigates how annealing affects the grain size and optical band-gap of SnS thin films, revealing that larger grains lead to lower band-gap values while structural properties remain unchanged.

Contribution

It demonstrates that annealing controls grain size without altering the crystal structure, influencing the optical band-gap of SnS thin films.

Findings

Band-gap decreases with increasing grain size

Annealing does not change lattice structure or unit cell size

High band-gap values (1.8-2.5 eV) observed in samples

Abstract

The manuscript reports the variation in optical band-gap of vacuum annealed SnS thin films. The samples were characterized by using X-Ray Diffraction, UV-visible Spectroscopy and Raman Analysis. Results show that while annealing does not effect the nano-crystalline sample's lattice structure or unit cell size it does control the grain size. The band-gap (Eg) decreases with increase in grain size. Eg values were found to be very high (1.8-2.5 eV) for samples studied.