Synthesis of B-Sb by rapid thermal annealing of B/Sb multilayer films

Abstract

Group III-V compound B-Sb films were synthesized from B/Sb/…/B multilayer films deposited by electron gun evaporation onto silicon substrate and subjecting the above multilayer to rapid thermal annealing at 773 K for 3 min. The films were characterized by XRD, TEM, XPS and optical studies. XPS studies indicated the ratio of B: Sb ∼ 1. XRD and electron diffraction patterns indicated the reflections from (100), (111), (102) and (112) planes of zinc blende BSb. Band gap evaluated from optical studies was ∼ 0·51 eV. Refractive index of the films varied between 1·65 and 2·18 with increasing energy of incident photon and plasma frequency (ω_p) was estimated to be ∼2·378×10⁻¹⁴ s⁻¹. The effective mass was computed to be ∼ 0·0845 m_e.