Volume 11 Issue 1 ( March )

This article reports that the annealing and hydrogenation effect on the transmission, reflection and bandgap of ZnSe/Mn and ZnSe/Co diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS). The diluted magnetic semiconductor multilayers thin films of ZnSe/Mn and ZnSe/Co were physically deposited by thermal evaporation technique at 10-5 torr vacuum pressure onto glass substrates. To achieve the inter-diffusion and homogeneous structures, the prepared samples were annealed at 473K for one hour in vacuum. Hydrogenation of annealed samples was done at pressure 20 and 30 psi H2 to observe the effect of hydrogenation on optical properties of thin films. The transmission and reflection of the samples were recorded using UV-Vis. spectrophotometer in the visible range. It was observed that the transmittance as well as energy bandgap of the samples varies with annealing temperature and hydrogen pressure. The opposite impact of annealing and hydrogenation on optical properties of ZnSe/Mn and ZnSe/Co thin films were observed that is Mn and Co interlayer with ZnSe reverse the effect of hydrogenation. The reverse effect of hydrogenation creates new possibilities to use ZnSe/Mn and ZnSe/Co diluted magnetic semiconductors in the field of photovoltaics, energy storage, spintronics and sensors.

Keywords: Thin film; DMS; Annealing; Hydrogenation; Transmission; Reflection; Bandgap