Effect of Sn Doping on the Crystallization Kinetics of Amorphous TlInS₂ Films

The crystallization of amorphous Sn-doped TlInS₂ films into three polymorphs has been studied by kinematic electron diffraction. The results demonstrate that the crystallization of 30-nm-thick amorphous films produced by thermal evaporation in high vacuum can be described by the Avrami–Kolmogorov equation: V_τ = V₀[1–exp(–kτ^m)]. Kinematic electron diffraction patterns of the TlIn_1–хSn_xS₂ films have been used to assess the effect of doping with Sn on the growth dimensionality and the activation energy for the crystallization of the amorphous films and the unit-cell parameters of the resultant crystalline materials. Doping extends the temperature range and effective activation energy for the crystallization of the amorphous films.