Effect of SnS addition on the morphological and optical properties of (SnS)m(Sb2S3)n nano-rods elaborated by glancing angle deposition

Abstract (SnS) m (Sb 2 S 3 ) n thin films were prepared by thermal evaporation using the glancing angle deposition technique (GLAD). The incident angle between the particle flux and the normal to the substrate was fixed at 80°. The Raman and XRD characterization revealed the amorphous character of the films due to the columnar structure as shown by the SEM characterization and AFM analysis. A strong change of the surface morphology of the films was observed and it depends on the composition. Optical properties were extracted from transmittance T and reflectance R spectra. (SnS) m (Sb 2 S 3 ) n thin films exhibit high absorption coefficients (10 4 –2 × 10 5  cm −1 ) in the visible range and the higher values were obtained for Sn 3 Sb 2 S 6 and it has the highest photocurrent values. The direct band gap ( E g dir ) was in the range 2.11–1.67 eV. The refractive indices are calculated from optical transmittance spectra of the films. The Sn 3 Sb 2 S 6 sample exhibits a lower refractive index. All the dispersion curves of refractive index match well with the Cauchy dispersion formula and they were analyzed using Wemple-DiDomenico model. The Bruggeman effective medium approximation EMA was used to calculate the packing density of different compositions, and SnSb 4 S 7 sample has the highest value. The so-called Verdet coefficient was evaluated from refractive index dispersion, and it was enhanced near the band gap.