Synthesis and Characterization of Silver Selenide Thin Films by Chemical Bath Deposition and Ionic Exchange

• Published in: Journal of electronic materials Vol. 48; no. 6; pp. 3405 - 3409
• Main Authors: Fernández-Díaz, E., Espinoza-Martinez, A. B., Flores-Pacheco, A., Ramírez-Bon, R., Castillo, S. J., Ochoa-Landin, R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.06.2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Absorption spectra; Blue shift; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemical synthesis; Chemistry and Materials Science; Deposition; Electronics and Microelectronics; Energy dispersive X ray spectroscopy; Energy gap; Instrumentation; Materials Science; Optical and Electronic Materials; Organic chemistry; Photoelectrons; Selenium; Solid State Physics; Spectrum analysis; Thin films; Transmission electron microscopy; Ultraviolet spectra; X-ray diffraction; Thin films; synthesis technique; silver selenide; chalcogenide
• ISSN: 0361-5235; 1543-186X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11664-019-07104-x

In this work, Ag 2 Se thin films were synthetized by a two-step technique at standard laboratory conditions. In the first step a silver hydrogen oxide carbonate thin film matrix was obtained by the chemical bath deposition technique. In the second step an ionic exchange between the matrix film and a new selenium ion solution was performed. The presence of silver and selenium atoms was detected by energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy. From x-ray diffraction characterization, it was concluded there was an orthorhombic and polycrystalline structure for this material, Ag 2 Se. On the other hand, it was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy. The binding energies of silver and selenium were detected by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. From the ultraviolet–visible absorption spectra for the nanostructured Ag 2 Se thin film it was observed there was a blue shift in its bandgap, being 1.37 eV, meanwhile the reported bulk bandgap value is 0.15 eV.