Optical properties and surface characterization of pulsed laser-deposited Cu₂ZnSnS₄ by spectroscopic ellipsometry

Cu2ZnSnS4 films prepared by pulsed laser deposition at different temperatures are characterized by spectroscopic ellipsometry. The focus is on confirming results from direct measurement techniques, by finding appropriate models of the surface overlayer for data fitting, and extracting the dielectric function of the films. It is found that the surface overlayer changes with film thickness and deposition temperature. Adopting different ellipsometry measurements and modeling strategies for each film, dielectric functions are extracted and compared. As the deposition temperature is increased, the dielectric functions exhibit additional critical points related to optical transitions in the material other than absorption across the fundamental band gap. In the case of a thin film <200 nm thick, surface features observed by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy are accurately reproduced by ellipsometry data fitting. [All rights reserved Elsevier].