Synthesis of cauliflower like shapes of copper telluride by electron beam irradiation

Abstract

In this work we employed electron irradiation technique to prepare copper telluride nanostructures with various dimensions by irradiating electrodeposited thin films. The irradiation dose could be used to control the diameter of the electrodeposited copper telluride nanostructures within the range of nanometer scale. This study reports the effect of irradiation of 2 MeV electron beam on the structural, surface morphological, and optical properties of copper telluride thin films. The band gap energy decreases from 2.82 to 2.53 eV with increase in crystal size from 9 to 45 nm with an increase in the dose from 10 to 30 kGy. X-ray diffraction studies show that crystal size decreases from 9 to 6 nm with a dose of 50 kGy. The fluence of the electron beam was 2 × 10¹³ electrons/cm². The crystal size was found to decrease upon electron beam irradiation and the materials exhibit poor crystallization.

Keywords:

• electrodeposition
• recrystallization
• semiconductors
• interdiffusion
• optical properties

Acknowledgements

The authors are very grateful to Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai, India for providing the electron accelerator (LINAC) set up at the BARC.