Production of nanostructured zinc sulfide films by the termonic vacuum arc method and determination of some physical properties

Zinc sulfide semiconducting films were produced by thermionic vacuum arc method on microscopic and fluorine doped tin oxide coated glass substrates. Structural, optical and morphological properties of the ZnS thin films were investigated. X – ray diffraction patterns of the prepared films on both substrates revealed that the samples had hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure. The crystallite size, texture coefficient, lattice parameters, strain and dislocation density were estimated from XRD results. The refractive index and extinction coefficient as a function of wavelength for the ZnS films were determined from the spectroscopic methods. The thicknesses of the samples were at about 124 and 126 nm for on microscope and FTO coated glass substrates, respectively. The direct band gap values of the samples were calculated to be 3,44 for microscope glass substrate and 3,5 eV for FTO coated glass substrate. The photoluminescence spectra of the films showed two peaks for the sample deposited on FTO substrate and three peaks for microscope glass substrate. Field emission scanning electron microscopy results revealed that the ZnS films are composed of nanorods or nanotubes randomly distributed in a background phase including grains depending on the substrates. The surface topology of ZnS films was studied by atomic force microscopy. Keyword: FTO, FESEM, X – ray diffraction, ,Nanotube, Nanowire, ZnS