Deposition and characterization of spray pyrolysed p-type Cu2SnS3 thin film for potential absorber layer of solar cell

Highlights: • Cu₂SnS₃ (CTS) thin film deposited at 573 K by chemical spray pyrolysis. • Tetragonal CTS structure confirmed by GIXRD pattern and Micro-Raman analysis. • AFM was used to study the grain size and surface roughness of deposited thin film. • Optical band gap of CTS thin film is found to be 1.70 eV. • Hall effect revealed CTS thin film having p-type conduction. - Abstract: Thin film of ternary Cu₂SnS₃ (CTS), a potential absorber layer for solar cells was successfully deposited by chemical spray pyrolysis technique. The GIXRD pattern revealed that the film having tetragonal Cu₂SnS₃ phase with the preferential orientation along (112), (200), (220) and (312) plane and it is further confirmed using Raman spectroscopy by the existence of Raman peak at 320 cm⁻¹. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) was used to estimate the surface roughness of 28.8 nm. The absorption coefficient was found to be greater than the order of 10⁵ cm⁻¹ and bandgap of 1.70 eV. Hall effect measurement indicates the p type nature of the film with a hole concentration of 1.03 × 10¹⁶cm⁻³ and a hall mobility of 404 cm²/V. The properties of CTS thin film confirmed suitable to be a potential absorber layer material for photovoltaic applications.