Structural and morphological characterization of ternary nanocrystalline Cu-In-S thin films prepared by laser ablation

Thin nanocrystalline Cu-In-S films are prepared by pulsed laser ablation in vacuum with Nd:YAG laser operating at 1064 nm on Si (100) substrates. As a target, a CuInS2 quantum dots powder, synthesized by sonochemical template-free colloidal approach and pressed to form a pellet is used. The structure and morphology of the deposited films were studied employing Xray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy techniques. The analysis of the deposited thin films revealed predominant cubic Cu1.7In0.05S phase. It has been found that deposited films were nanocrystalline. The effect of laser pulse energy and deposition time on the structure and morphology of as-prepared films is studied. Slight mean diameter increase from 8 nm to 13 nm with deposition time and applied power was observed, as the time dependence is more pronounced. On the contrary, six fold increase from 7.4 to 44.3 nm of the surface root mean square roughness was estimated with augmentation of the applied laser pulse energy.