Investigation of spray pyrolyzed cubic structured Cu doped SnS films

Undoped and Cu doped SnS films were deposited onto glass substrates by spray pyrolysis technique in order to investigate the effect of Cu doping on their physical properties. Surface investigations showed that Cu doping reduced the surface roughness of SnS films from 36.5 to 8.8 nm. XRD studies revealed that all films have recently solved large cubic phase of SnS (π-SnS) with a-lattice of 11.53 Å and Cu doping led to a reduction in crystallite size from 229 to 198 Å. Additionally, all deposited films were found to be under compressive strain. Optical band gaps of SnS:Cu varied in the range of 1.83–1.90 eV. Hall-effect measurements exhibited that all films have p-type conductivity with low hole concentration (∼1011–1012 cm−3) and high electrical resistivity (∼104–105 Ωcm).