Structural, optical and electrical properties of Ag doped PbS thin films: role of Ag concentration

The present work reports on the chemical synthesizes of (0–8 at.%) silver (Ag)-doped PbS thin films with tunable opto-electrical properties. From the X-ray diffraction analyses, it was understood that the preferred growth orientation of Ag:PbS films was dependent on the Ag doping concentration. The variation in the Ag:PbS films orientation was reflected in the film morphology as observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). SEM studies revealed that the variation in Ag concentration lead to different grain shapes for different grain orientations. The AFM study showed that the RMS roughness of the undoped PbS film has been reduced considerably due to silver doping. From the optical studies, a widening in the optical band gap was revealed after Ag-doping due to the quantum confinement effect. It was obtained that 4 at.% Ag-doped PbS thin films display an optimum band gap value of 1.45 eV. As for electrical characterization result, the resistivity reduces and the carrier density improved with 4 at.% Ag concentration. Based on all the data, it was concluded that the 4 at.% Ag-doped PbS thin film showed the best morphological, optical and electrical behavior, which recommend it as an active layer for solar cell devices.