Single step fabrication of CuS thin film via hydrothermal route for solar cell application

In the present investigation, we have successfully synthesized Copper Sulfide (CuS) thin film via facile and low cost hydrothermal method. The synthesized (CuS) thin film was characterized for optical, morphological and compositional analysis. Surface profiler study shows thickness of thin film is 420 nm. The optical study revealed that the direct allowed type of transition having band gap 1.95 eV. The X-Ray diffraction (XRD) study illustrated that CuS thin film was nanocrystalline in nature with pure cubic crystal structure and calculated crystalline size is 18 nm. Well adherent and crack free deposition on substrate was observed in Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis. SEM images show that synthesized CuS thin film having nanoflakes like morphology. The Energy Dispersive Spectra (EDS) pattern confirmed that Cu and S elements are present in deposited thin film. At last, we have critically analyzed photoresponse property to check the suitability of deposited materials for photoelectrochemical (PEC) application. PEC study illustrates that, the synthesized CuS thin film having power conversion efficiency 0.162 %.