Abstract
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•Good quality Sn:CdS thin films were fabricated through a facile spray pyrolysis technique.•Structural and vibrational studies confirm monophasic hexagonal system of all Sn:CdS films.•The Sn existence and its homogeneity in CdS films was approved by EDX/elemental mapping.•The band gap was noticed in range from 2.43 to 2.45 eV for all Sn:CdS films.•The χ3 and n2 values are found of the order of 10−11 and 10−10 esu.
Herein, we are focusing on to inveterate physical properties of spray pyrolysis fabricated CdS films with diverse Sn doping contents (0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.5, 5.0 wt%) named as Sn:CdS. Hexagonal mono-phase of CdS at every content of Sn was detected by structural and vibrational analyses. The mean size of crystallites (Lave), density of dislocations, strain, number of unit cells and texture coefficient were estimated and the values of Lave are observed in 20–24 nm range. To confirm the presence of Sn and its homogeneity in films the EDX/SEM mapping was carried out. Fine nanostructured and pin hole/crack free films fabrication was suggested by SEM images. The grown Sn:CdS films are showing the transparency in 50–70% range in visible to INR range. The refractive index values were calculated in 1.6–2.9 range, over 500–2500 nm wavelength region. The estimated values of Eg are noticed in 2.43–2.45 eV range. At two excitation wavelengths the PL emission was recorded at both 350 and 450 nm excitation wavelength and possesses an emission at ~531 ± 20 and 530 ± 15 nm (green), correspondingly. The values of optical dielectric constant, conductivity, linear, third order- nonlinear susceptibilities and index of nonlinear refraction were estimated. Using a 650 nm wavelength laser the optical limiting was recorded and noticed to be strongly affected by Sn doping.