01252nas a2200133   4500008004100000022001300041245008100054210006900135260001600204300001100220490000800231520080200239856007701041       2006                        eng d  a0021897900aMicrostructure dependent physical properties of evaporated tin sulfide films0 aMicrostructure dependent physical properties of evaporated tin s  cJan-01-2006  a0235180 v1003 aIn the field of photovoltaics, semiconductors of the III-V group such as GaAs and InP have been considered as the most efficient absorber materials due to their direct energyband gap and high mobility. In these compounds, arsenic and phosphorus are highly toxic and expensive. In this work we present systematic preparation of low cost SnS thin films and characterize these films to test their suitability for photovoltaic applications. We have observed that the films (with thickness ≅0.5μm) grown at the substrate temperature of 275°C exhibit a low resistive single SnS phase and have a direct optical band gap of 1.35eV with an absorption coefficient of ∼10<sup>5</sup>cm−1. SnSfilms could be alternative semiconductor materials as absorbers for the fabrication of photovoltaic devices.  uhttp://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/100/2/10.1063/1.2216790