Modification of Morphological, Structural and Optical Properties of CBD-Based Growth of PbS Films on Glass Substrates by Addition of Saccharin

Saccharin which so-called as benzoic sulfimide is an artificial sweetener. In this paper, nanostructured lead sulfide (PbS) thin films were produced in the presence of additive known as saccharin via chemical bath deposition (CBD). Effect of the saccharin content on the morphological, optical and structural properties of the films has been investigated. Lead sulfide (PbS) films that included additive were prepared at five different concentrations of saccharin (from 0 to 5%). The fabricated samples were characterized by surface roughness, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-Ray diffraction and UV-vis spectroscopy. It was found that the presence of saccharin highly affected the optical and structural properties of PbS thin films. According to the X-Ray diffraction results, crystallite size values of the films decreased from 12.88 to 5.25 nm with increasing of saccharin content. UV-vis measurements showed that both the band gap and transmission properties of the films increased as a result of increasing saccharin concentration. Further, Surface roughness measurements exhibited that average surface roughness was diminished with increasing saccharin content. As a result, it has been found that the presence of saccharin in growth solution played a significant mission in adjusting the main physical properties of the samples.