Optical and Electrical Properties of Zinc Selenide Thin Films
Summary
Zinc selenide (ZnSe) thin films are direct wide-band-gap II–VI semiconductors that exhibit strong transparency across the visible spectrum and a band gap in the range of 2.6–2.9 eV. Deposited by techniques such as thermal evaporation, magnetron sputtering and chemical vapour approaches, these films typically adopt a cubic zinc-blende structure with a preferred (111) orientation. Optically, they display high refractive indices (approximately 2.6–2.8) and low extinction coefficients in the transparent window. Electrically, conduction often follows an Ohmic regime at low injection levels, transitioning to space-charge-limited current when traps dominate the transport. Film thickness, deposition energy and post-deposition annealing crucially influence crystallinity, microstrain, surface roughness and carrier mobility. Such tunable optical and electrical characteristics underpin applications in photovoltaics, light-emitting diodes, photodetectors and other optoelectronic devices.
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Optical and Electrical Properties of Zinc Selenide Thin Films publication trend
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Technical terms
Optical band gap: The minimum photon energy required to excite electrons from the valence to the conduction band, defining the absorption edge.
Refractive index: A dimensionless measure of the phase velocity of light in a material relative to vacuum, indicating optical density.
Extinction coefficient: A parameter that quantifies the attenuation of light intensity per unit distance due to absorption.
Space-charge-limited current (SCLC): A conduction regime in which injected charge carriers accumulate and limit the current through the film, often revealing trap states.
Swanepoel’s envelope method: An analytical approach using interference fringes in transmittance spectra to determine film thickness and optical constants.
References
- Structure and optical properties of polycrystalline ZnSe thin films: validity of Swanepols approach for calculating the optical parameters. Materials Research Express (2020).
- Effect of RF Power on the Physical Properties of Sputtered ZnSe Nanostructured Thin Films for Photovoltaic Applications. Nanomaterials (2021).
- Growth of ZnSe nano and microstructures at high vacuum by thermal evaporation. Applied Nanoscience (2013).
- Thermal Annealing Effect on Optical and Electrical Properties of Zinc Selenide (ZnSe) Thin Films. American Journal of Physics and Applications (2023).
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