Chemical bath deposition of mercury(II) sulfide thin layers
Abstract
Thin layers of mercury(ii) sulfide have been prepared by a newly developed chemical bath deposition technique. The layers were grown on glass substrates previously coated with a very thin layer of lead sulfide (thickness <10 nm). The deposition was performed in alkaline media at 65 °C from thiosulfate complexes of mercury. X-Ray investigation indicates that the deposited material is a mercury(ii) sulfide mixture of two phases, α-HgS and γ-HgS, with α-HgS dominant. The optical bandgap,Eg, was evaluated from VIS absorption spectra and found to have a value of 3.1 eV.