Investigation on thermoelectric properties of SnSe thin films as prepared by RF magnetron sputtering

In this work, we investigated the thermoelectric properties of SnSe (Tin Selenide) thin films onto SiO₂/Si-wafer substrates as prepared by RF (radio frequency) magnetron sputtering technique. The sputtering conditions used base pressure below 5.5 10⁻⁴ Pa and working pressure at 0.93 Pa within the Ar atmosphere as a flow rate fixed 40 sccm. The RF sputtering power was applied at 80 W and sputtering time for 30 min. After thin film deposition, as-deposited thin films were annealed by the vacuum annealing method at 300–450 °C. The crystal structure, morphology and film thickness, and atomic composition of SnSe thin film were carried out by X-ray diffraction (XRD), the field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) techniques, respectively. The thermoelectric properties (electrical resistivity; ρ) and Seebeck coefficient; S) were measured by the ZEM-3 method to calculate the power factor (PF) value. The results showed that the as-deposited thin films had improved the crystallography of SnSe from amorphous to crystalline phases after thin films were annealed at a temperature range of 300–400 °C. At room temperature, the maximum power factor of 0.35 mW m^˗1 K^˗2 (ρ = 202 mΩ m and S = 165 μV K^˗1) could be found to estimate the dimensionless Figure of Merit (ZT) values around 0.44 for annealing thin film sample at 400 °C.