Analysis of Chemically Deposited SnS Thin Film for
Solar Cell Application
Arindam Basak1 3*, Saswat Soumya Mishra1, Udai P. Singh1, Anup Mondal2
1
Thin Film Photovoltaics Lab, School of Electronics Engineering, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
2
Department of Chemistry, IIEST, Shibpur, Howrah, West Bengal.
3
CEGESS, IIEST, Shibpur, Howrah, West Bengal.
* abasakfet@kiit.ac.in
Abstract—SnS is a promising material for solar cell absorber
layer application due to its low cost, easy availability and less
toxicity than other semiconductor material used for the same
purpose. SnS thin films as an absorber layer for photovoltaic
application are deposited using chemical bath deposition (CBD)
having a thickness of 550 nm from a solution containing
SnCl2.2H2O, TEA, TA and NH3OH. NH3OH is used to control
the pH of the solution which is maintained at 5. The surface
morphology of the deposited film has been examined using X-
Ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The optical
as well as electrical properties of deposited film have been
characterized using UV-Vis spectrophotometer and hall effect
measurement system respectively. Results show that films
deposited in this process have amorphous crystal structure and
have good adherence to the substrate. The bandgap obtained is
1.4eV which is very suitable for its use as absorber material for
thin film solar cell.
Keywords: SnS thin film, Chemical bath deposition, X-ray
diffraction, Hall Measurement
I. INTRODUCTION
In recent days new semiconductor materials are growing
interest among the researchers for the application in
photovoltaics [1]. SnS is one of IV-VI group semiconductor
material having direct bandgap value 1.3-1.5 eV and a high
absorption coefficient as compared to other materials like
GaAs and CdTe. It has shown great potential as an absorber
material for photovoltaic application [2][3]. Another added
advantage for SnS is the abundance of its constituent
materials in nature with less toxicity [4].
Several researchers have deposited SnS thin film using
various deposition techniques like sputtering [5], electro-
deposition [6], SILAR method [7], co-evaporation [8], spray
pyrolysis [9] and chemical bath deposition [10]. Among the
above methods chemical bath deposition(CBD) is the low
cost and simple method for deposition of thin films where
thin film layers grow over surface areas [10].
Different crystal structures have been found for deposited
SnS: orthorhombic structure, zinc blende structure and NaCl
structure. Mainly deposited SnS thin films are of
orthorhombic structure though several researchers have
reported about zinc blende and NaCl crystal structure. SnS
978-1-4799-4445-3/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE
thin films for the application of solar cell must have compact
structure. Furthermore thin film for photovoltaic application
must have low electrical resistivity as high electrical
resistivity of film deteriorates solar cell performance [10].
Here in this work SnS thin films are deposited using
chemical bath technique at elevated temperature for 22 hours.
The main focus of this work is to study the structural (SEM
and XRD analysis), optical (transmittance and bandgap) and
electrical (Carrier Concentration, mobility, resistivity,
conductivity) properties of deposited thin film using CBD
technique suitable as absorber material for photovoltaic
devices. Results confirm that SnS can be a good choice for
use as an absorber layer in photovoltaics.
II. EXPERIMENT DETAILS
In the present work the depositions are done on glass
substrates. Glass substrates are first cleaned with soap
solution and followed by cleaning ultrasonically in acetone
and de-ionized water. Finally the glass slide was dried using
blowing N2.
In this work first a solution of 1g tin salt (SnCl2·2H2O)
and 5 ml of acetone(C3H6O) was prepared. Another 100 ml
solution of 12 ml of 3 M triethanolamine (TEA), 8 ml of 1.5
M thioacetamide (TA) and 10 ml of 5 M ammonia, NH3(aq),
70 ml of distilled water is prepared. While preparing the
solution thioacetamide was added in the solution very slowly
using a dropper to avoid the precipitation. Next 95 ml of 2nd
solution is mixed with the 1st solution to make a new solution
of 100 ml. This mixed solution is stirred for some time to
have a uniform mixture and then set at 310 K with glass slides
in the solution placed at 450 angles. A deep brown thin film is
deposited on the glass slides in about 22 hour. After
completion of deposition, the deposited films were rinsed in
distilled water and dried by direr. It is observed that the films
are uniform and had better adherence on glass substrate.
Structural characterization of the deposited films is
investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and by
X- ray diffraction (XRD) using Cu-Kα radiation. The optical
characterization ie. transmittance and absorbance was
measured using UV-Vis spectrophotometer having
wavelength range of 300 nm-900 nm (Shimadzu 2450). The
thickness of the film was measured using Film metrics F-10.
Before the measurement of transmittance and absorbance, [12]. It is found that the calculated value and the standard
deposited film on backside of the substrate was cleaned value obtained from JCPDS Card are matching.
carefully with cotton swabs using dilute HCl and then by
distilled water. The reference was clean glass slide. The
electrical properties were determined using Hall Effect
measurement system (Ecopia HMS 3000).

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The deposition of SnS films using CBD technique is
precipitation free, which indicates that this deposition
mechanism of SnS is an ion-by-ion process [11]. The
measured thickness of the film was 550 ± 5 nm

Fig. 2 shows the SEM images of the deposited SnS

film. From the figure it can be seen that orthorhombic SnS

Fig. 1: XRD pattern of SnS film prepared by CBD
Fig. 1 shows the XRD analysis of the deposited film. The
spectra clearly show that the deposited films are amorphous in
nature. From the XRD pattern it is clear that the diffraction
peaks are observed at 2θ = 30.930, 26.650, 25.250 and 33.60
which are assigned to (1 1 1), (0 2 1), (1 1 0) and (1 2 1)
planes respectively of orthorhombic primitive type lattice
structure of SnS (JCPDS NO. 65-3766).
TABLE 1: XRD DATA OF SnS FILM PREPARED BY CBD
Angle d- Val FWHM h k
30.93 2.88 0.02 1 1
thin film is dense and consists of short cylinder rods. Some
nanosized island can also be seen in the surface structure.
The reason for this may be the long deposition time where
the islands growth mode gradually begins to work during the
deposition process as SnS films grows following a layer-by-
layer mode [11]. This type of phenomenon is also observed
in the deposition of Cu2S films [13].
TABLE 2: STRUCTURAL PARAMETERS FOR SnS FILM
The Interplaner The Lattice Constant Micro
Spacing (d) [Å] (a) [Å] Strain
2.89 5.01 0.07
Fig. 3 shows the optical transmittance spectra of
deposited orthorhombic SnS films at different wavelength in
the range 300-900nm. The interference fringe at the high
wavelength region corroborates the fact that the film
deposited is orthorhombic and smooth [14].
l With the help of Urbach relation the optical bandgap is
1
calculated[15]:

(αhυ)m = A(hυ-Eg) (2)

Table 1 shows the dominant peak XRD data of the SnS films
deposited by chemical bath technique. The inter-atomic Where α is optical absorption coefficient of the deposited
spacing among the planes is 2.88 nm and the Miller indices film, hυ is the photon energy, A is constant
come (1 1 1) which indicates that the crystal axis are uniform.
The average crystallite size can be estimated by Scherrer’s
formula:
kλ
D= (1)
β cosθ

where K is as shape factor its value nearly 0.89 and it is

dimensionless, λ=0.154 nm and is the X-ray wavelength of
CuKα radiation, β is experimental full-width half-maximum
of the respective diffraction peak and measured in radians
and θ is the Bragg diffraction angle. By using above relation
crystallite size was calculated and found 4.84 nm. The
interplaner spacing, lattice constant and micro strain for the Fig. 2: Transmission spectra for thin film SnS on glass substrate using CBD
deposited film has been calculated using the formula
described by Y.P. Venkata Subbaiah, P Prathap, KT Reddy
and m=2 for direct allowed bandgap, m=1/2 for allowed
indirect bandgap. Here we take m=2 correspond to allowed
direct bandgap. The relation between (αhυ)2 vs eV has been
plotted in fig 4. The slope of the plotted graph cut the eV axis
at 1.5 eV which determines that the allowed bandgap value
for chemical deposited SnS film comes around 1.5 eV which
is in accordance with the transmittance value found in Fig 3
Fig. 3: Plot of (αhυ)2 vs (hυ) for thin film SnS on glass substrate using CBD
and previously reported optical bandgap value[16].
Table 3 shows the electrical properties of the
deposited thin SnS film. High carrier concentration and low
resistivity indicates the fact that SnS can be a good absorber
layer for solar cell applications.
TABLE 3: ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES OF SnS FILM
Carrier
Mobility Resistivity Conductivity
Concentration
(cm2/Vs) (ohm-cm) -3 (mho-cm)
(cm )
1.03 X 1001 2.25 X 1003 2.70 X 1014 4.44 X 10-04
IV. CONCLUSION
Deposition of SnS thin film was carried out on glass
substrate using chemical bath deposition technique. A
detailed study of surface morphology, crystallite size, optical
and electrical properties have been done. It has been observed
that the deposited film is compact having orthorhombic
structure and have an orientation around the (1 1 1) plane with
a small grain size. The bandgap value for the deposited film is
found to be 1.5 eV having good transmittance characteristics
which indicates that SnS can be used as a good absorber
material for solar cell application. Hall Effect measurement
confirms that the film has p-type conductivity with a low
electrical resistivity which makes it suitable for the use in
solar cell as absorber material.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors like to acknowledge CEGESS, IIEST, Shibpur
for providing use of experimental facility and DST for
financial support through grant # DST/TM/SERI/2K11/42
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The following comments from reviewers end.

1. Full form of CBD not mentioned.
2. Give proper Equation numbers for all the equations.
3. Write down all the equations properly by equation editor.
4. No explanation for Fig.4 then what is the importance of
Fig.4?
5. Give latest reference.