Study of the Morphological, Structural, Electrical, and Optical Features of Spray-Deposited Yttrium-doped Magnesium Selenide (YMgSe) Thin Film for Photovoltaic Applications

Chidozie C. Ohiri; Lebe A. Nnanna; Nwamaka I. Akpu; Ugochukwu Joseph; Imosobomeh L. Ikhioya

doi:10.20221/jnmsr.v3i1.25

Authors

Chidozie C. Ohiri Department of Physics, College of Physical and Applied Sciences, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria
Lebe A. Nnanna Department of Physics, College of Physical and Applied Sciences, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria
Nwamaka I. Akpu Department of Physics, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8062-9279
Ugochukwu Joseph Department of Physics, College of Physical and Applied Sciences, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria
Imosobomeh L. Ikhioya Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nigeria Nsukka, 410001 Nsukka, Nigeria

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.20221/jnmsr.v3i1.25

Keywords:

MgSe, Yttrium, Chalcogenide, Spray pyrolysis, Doping

Abstract

In this study, a spray pyrolysis approach was used to fabricate undoped and yttrium-doped magnesium selenide (0.01 – 0.04 mol%) chalcogenide materials. The deposited samples underwent comprehensive investigation, which covered analyses of their microstructure, elemental composition, structural, electrical, and optical properties with the aid of SEM cum EDX, XRD, four-point probe, and spectrophotometer accordingly. The micrograph results show that a high number of fine grains are well coated and distributed uniformly on the slide, with their elemental composition analysis results confirming the formation of undoped and yttrium-doped MgSe. The undoped material's crystallinity decreased with the addition of the yttrium dopant. More so, hexagonal crystal structures with notable peaks were observed from the pattern for all the samples. From the electrical result, the resistivity and conductivity of the samples were seen to increase and decrease respectively with increasing film thickness, which is one of the properties of a typical semiconductor material. The optical results show that yttrium-doped MgSe samples revealed improved features with an energy band gap ranging from 1.50 – 1.35 eV as compared to undoped MgSe with a value of 1.55 eV. The materials fabricated can be applied in the production of photovoltaic devices such as solar cells.

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