Microhardness studies of vapour grown tin (II) sulfide single crystals

Title

Microhardness studies of vapour grown tin (II) sulfide single crystals

Creator

Hegde S.S.; Kunjomana A.G.; Ramesh K.

Description

Earth abundant tin sulfide (SnS) has attracted considerable attention as a possible absorber material for low-cost solar cells due to its favourable optoelectronic properties. Single crystals of SnS were grown by physical vapour deposition (PVD) technique. Microindentation studies were carried out on the cleaved surfaces of the crystals to understand their mechanical behaviour. Microhardness increased initially with the load, giving sharp maximum at 15 g. Quenching effect has increased the microhardness, while annealing reduced the microhardness of grown crystals. The hardness values of as-grown, annealed and quenched samples at 15 g load are computed to be 99.69, 44.52 and 106.29 kg/mm 2 respectively. The microhardness of PVD grown crystals are high compared to CdTe, a leading low-cost PV material. The as-grown faces are found to be fracture resistant. 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.

Source

AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol-1665

Date

2015-01-01

Publisher

American Institute of Physics Inc.

Subject

Microhardness; Photovoltaic materials; Physical vapour deposition (PVD); Single crystals; SnS

Coverage

Hegde S.S., Department of Physics, CMR Institute of Technology, Bangalore, 560037, India; Kunjomana A.G., Department of Physics, Christ University, Bangalore, 560029, India; Ramesh K., Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560012, India

Rights

Restricted Access

Relation

ISSN: 0094243X; ISBN: 978-073541310-8

Format

Online

Language

English

Type

Conference paper

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4918038

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