Optical and structural characterization of ZnSe thin film fabricated by thermal vapour deposition technique

Zinc-selenide thin film was prepared on a soda-lime glass substrate by thermal vapor deposition technique. The X-ray diffraction data confirmed the cubic zincblende structure with a preferred orientation along (111) plane. Different models such as Debye-Scherrer, Size-Strain plot, Williamson-Hall, uniform stress deformation model and uniform deformation energy density model and the so called approximation model were adopted to analyse the XRD data. Detailed microstructural parameters such as crystallite size, strain, stress, isotropic energy density, dislocation denstiy were reported and discussed in comparison with scanning electron microscopy data. The transmission spectra was obtained by UV-Vis-NIR spectrometer in the range of 250–2500 nm at room temperature. Important optical constantssuch as refractive index and dielectric constant was estimated using Swanepoel’s envelope method. The same method was used to check the thin film thickness which was found to be ~374.9 nm and this thickness was further confirmed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (368.3 ± 19.1 nm). The optical band gap was estimated to be 2.64 eV. The dispersion of refractive index was discussed interms of empirical Cauchy dispersion relation and the dispersion was further analysed by Wemple-DiDomenico Single oscillator model which provide physically meaningful parameters such as static refractive index, oscillator energy and dispersion energy. Both the structural and optical data not only complemented each other but also implied that good quality Zinc-selenide thin film could be deposited on ordinary glass substrates.