Morphology and chemical composition of films of chalcopyrite

Abstract

Thin films of chalcopyrite CuFeS 2 were deposited on glass substrates by a flash method. The resulting film structure was analyzed by means of scanning electron microscopy combined with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. It was detected that thin films consist of separate grains with the approximately equal areas of about (200–400) μm 2 . Thin films of chalcopyrite CuFeS 2 have the chemical composition with the atomic content of Cu, Fe, and S of 25.22, 23.38, and 51.40 at. % and the atomic ratios of Cu/Fe and S/(Cu + Fe) equaling to 1.08 and 1.06 respectively that slightly differs from the theoretical values equaling to 1 for both atomic ratios. The small inclusion of the second phase with the chemical composition with the atomic content of Cu, Fe, and S of 29.24, 25.24, and 45.52 at. % was detected and can be attributed to talnakhite Cu 9 Fe 8 S 16 . The most common occurrence of the inclusion of the second phase along the borders of the grain shows that they are responsible for the cracking of thin films.