The Investigation of Transport Properties in AlSb Thin Films

Theoretical predictions for AlSb material properties have not been realized using bulk growth methods. This research was motivated by thermal evaporation technology to produce high quality thin film AlSb for the purpose of evaluating transport properties and suitability for thermo electric devices and solar cell. The objective of present research work is to prepare compound thin films of AlSb thin films for thermoelectric applications. The thin film of varying thicknesses of AlSb was prepared by using thermal vacuum evaporation technique. The structural characterizations were made by using XRD. The optical characterizations and band gap were evaluated using UV-VIS-NIR spectroscopy, Electrical Characterizations by four probe technique and thermoelectric characterizations were carried out. X-ray diffractogram shows that films were polycrystalline in nature and having cubic structure. The various parameters such as activation energy, bulk resistivity, carrier concentration, mobility, Fermi energy, absorption coefficient were evaluated and found to be thickness dependent. The deposited films were semiconducting in nature and a suitable candidate for IR detector, solar cell.