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Studies on dielectric properties, opto-electrical parameters and electronic

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 Journal of Alloys and Compounds 671 (2016) 566e578

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Alloys and Compounds

journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jalcom

Studies on dielectric properties, opto-electrical parameters and

electronic polarizability of thermally evaporated amorphous
Cd50S50
xSex thin films
Ahmed Saeed Hassanien a, b, *
a
Engineering Mathematics and Physics Department, Faculty of Engineering (Shoubra), Benha University, Egypt
b
Physics Department, Faculty of Science and Humanities in Ad-Dawadmi, Shaqra University, 11911, Saudi Arabia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The objective of this work is to study the influence of the addition of more Se on dielectric properties,
Received 5 July 2015 opto-electrical parameters and electronic polarizability of amorphous chalcogenide Cd50S50
xSex thin
Received in revised form films (30  x  50 at%). Thin films of thickness 200 nm were synthesized by vacuum deposition at
23 January 2016
z8.2  10
4 Pa. Both refractive index and extinction coefficient were used to obtain all the studied
Accepted 14 February 2016
Available online 18 February 2016
parameters. The high frequency dielectric constant, real and imaginary parts of dielectric constant were
discussed. Drude theory was applied to investigate opto-electrical parameters, like optical carrier con-
centration, optical mobility and optical resistivity. Moreover, other parameters were investigated and
Keywords:
Thin films
studied, e.g. Drude parameters, volume and surface energy loss functions, dielectric loss factor, dielectric
Chalcogenides relaxation time, complex optical conductivity and electronic polarizability as well as optical electro-
Physical vapor deposition (PVD) negativity and third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility. Values of electronic polarizability and
Amorphous materials nonlinear optical susceptibility were found to be decreased while optical electronegativity increased as
Semiconductors and dielectric properties Se-content was increased. Increment of Se-content in amorphous Cd50S50
xSex thin films has also led to
minimize the energy losses when electromagnetic waves propagate through films as well as optical
conductivity and the speed of light increased. The other studied properties and parameters of
Cd50S50
xSex films were found to be strongly dependent upon Se-content.
© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction especially in the optoelectronics, nonlinear optics and photo elec-

In recent years, the study of chalcogenide semiconducting
glasses of group IIeVI has been acquired great attention because of
their important optical, electrical and photovoltaic applications as
well as their extensive uses in optoelectronic devices [1e3]. They
exhibit amorphous semiconducting nature and having an energy
band gap ranging from 1 to 3 eV. These glasses have an excellent IR
transmission from 0.5 to 16 mm, photosensitivity, high refractive
index and high value of nonlinearity [4,5]. The most promising
materials are the ternary chalcogenide cadmium sulphoselenide
(CdeSeSe) systems and their thin films due to the possibility of
adjusting and tailoring of their optical properties [5e7]. Chalco-
genide CdeSeSe thin films are widely used in many applications,
* Physics Department, Faculty of Science and Humanities in Ad-Dawadmi, Shaqra
University, 11911, Saudi Arabia.
E-mail address: a.s.hassanien@gmail.com.
trochemical solar cell applications and devices [6,7]. In addition,
they are used as light emitting diodes, optical waveguides, optical
filters, piezoelectric devices, multimeter sensors, electron-beam
pumped lasers [7e9], spintronics, quantum computing, electro-
photography and photo-catalysis [10e12]. Chalcogenide CdSSe
thin films are also characterized by their high sensitivity to light,
therefore, they are used along wide ranges of application, especially
in transistors and electroluminescent devices [13e15]. Conse-
quently, it was found that, ternary chalcogenide CdSSe composi-
tions occupy a large scientific research area.
After a quick review of published works of CdSSe compositions,
it was found that the majority of these articles did not interested in
studying refractive index, extinction coefficient, dielectric con-
stants, opto-electrical parameters, Drude parameters, optical
complex conductivity, molar polarizability, optical electronega-
tivity and third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility as well as
some other affecting parameters. Although these parameters are
essential and they should be investigated and studied to use CdSSe

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2016.02.126
0925-8388/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 A.S. Hassanien / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 671 (2016) 566e578
thin films in the optoelectronic devices and optical applications
[16e18]. On the other side, in spite of there are many studies on
crystalline CdSSe thin films, but researchers almost didn't study the
physical, optical and electrical characteristics of their amorphous
phases, whether they are bulk compositions of thin films. There-
fore, the author found a dearth in the previous works concerned
with the study of the amorphous CdSSe thin films.
This communication complements my previous works which
concern to study the physical, optical and electrical properties of
CdeSeSe compounds, whether these compounds are crystalline or
amorphous. The author has studied the microstructural properties
and the crystal imperfections of the ternary chalcogenide crystal-
line thin films of CdSXSe1
X systems (0.0  x  0.4) [7]. In another
article for the same samples, the author has studied the effect of
adding the Se element on optical and electrical properties [19].
While for the amorphous phase, the researcher carried out three
research works. He studied the estimation of the physical charac-
teristics of the ternary chalcogenide Cd50S50
xSex bulk glasses
(50  X  30 at %) [15], as well as the electrical transport properties
and Mott's parameters of these bulk glasses was studied [20]. In the
third work, the influence of composition on the optical properties
and the refractive index dispersion parameters of thermally evap-
orated non-crystalline thin films prepared from these glassy bulk
samples was studied [21].
The aim of the present work is to complete what has been
studied in the previous articles. The author has been allocated this
research work to study opto-electrical parameters, the dielectric
properties, the electronic polarizability, the covalency parameter,
the optical electronegativity and the third-order nonlinear optical
susceptibility of the chalcogenide amorphous thin films of
Cd50S50
xSex systems (30  x  50 at%). Our purpose also is to
investigate the volume and The surface energy loss functions,
dielectric loss factor, dielectric relaxation time, plasma and damp-
ing frequencies, complex optical conductivity, optical electronega-
tivity and third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility. The main
goal of this work is to discuss and study the influence of the effect of
Se addition and the energy of the incident photons on these
properties and parameters. To my knowledge, no attention has
been allocated in previous literature to study these properties,
especially for amorphous CdSSe thin films. Therefore the author
finds a difficulty to get similar data to compare with the obtained
results.
2. Experimental procedures
2.1. Bulk samples preparation
High purity powders of Cd, S and Se elements (SigmaeAldrich)
were used to synthesis chalcogenide thin films of Cd50S50
xSex
systems (30  x  50 at%). The elemental powders have been
weighed in appropriate proportions according to their atomic mass
ratios in stoichiometric quantities. The starting materials were
extremely mixed and grinded together using a tightly closed agate
mortar. The grinded mixture was placed in a roll mill for 48 h to get
a highly homogeneous mixture. Each mixture of the ternary
CdeSeSe systems was pressed using high pressure compressor
(6.5 MPa), to get highly compressed solid pellets. The phase nature
of the obtained bulk pellets was checked by X-ray diffraction. It was
found that the bulk pellets of Cd50S50
xSex matrix were formed in
the amorphous phase [15].
2.2. Thin films preparation
Bulk pellets have been used to prepare thin film samples by the
thermal evaporation technique. The pellets were placed in the
567
molybdenum boat source of the coating unit. Thus, the scattering
and fragmentation of Cd50S50
xSex matrix components can be
avoided and may be fade. Thin films were deposited on pre-cleaned
glass substrates. The substrates have been chemically and ultra-
sonically cleaned. The evaporation process was carried out by
Edward's coating unit (E 306A) maintaining the residual vacuum at
z8.2  10
4 Pa. Film thickness and deposition rate were monitored
during the deposition process by a quartz crystal oscillator
(Edwards model FTM3). The quartz oscillator is located very close to
the glass substrate inside the thermal evaporation chamber. Film
thicknesses were checked by multiple-beam Fizeau fringes at
reflection method. Chalcogenide film samples of Cd50S50
xSex
matrix have been controlled in to have 200 ± 3 nm in thickness. The
following conditions have been applied to get the amorphous
Cd50S50
xSex thin films; (i) the rate of deposition process was kept
constant for all films at 8 nm/s approximately, this rate strongly
helps to form the thin films in the amorphous phase, (ii) the films
were kept inside the deposition chamber for 24 H to achieve the
meta stable equilibrium and (iii) the used substrates are amor-
phous and unheated glass. The obtained as-deposited CdSSe thin
films have good quality where they were homogenous in thickness,
smooth and tightly adherent to the glass substrates. The amor-
phous nature of ternary chalcogenide Cd50S50
xSex thin films was
checked by JEOL X-ray diffractometer of Model JSDX-60PA, which
was operated at 40 kV and 35 mA. The obtained X-ray diffraction
patterns of the present thin films were not represented here where
they were published in another work [21]. On the other hand, the
elemental composition distribution of deposited thermally evapo-
rated Cd50S50
xSex thin films (50  x  30 at%) has been investi-
gated. It was found that, the measured and calculated values of the
prepared amorphous chalcogenides Cd50S50
xSex thin films are
very close to each other and the error does not exceed ±0.2%. The
details of the elemental compositional analysis of the present
Cd50S50
xSex film samples were published elsewhere [21].
2.3. Mass density and molar volume determination
The volumetric mass density of any alloy or composition is very
important parameter, where it affects on physical properties.
Therefore, it is considered a powerful tool and capable of exploring
the changes in the structure of amorphous materials. The mass
density of the material affects indirectly on the structural softening,
changes in its geometrical configurations, and dimensions of
interstitial spaces of the glass [22,23]. Density measurements of the
ternary chalcogenide bulk Cd50S50
xSex compositions were carried
out at room temperature by using Archimedes principle method
where non-solvent liquid (toluene) was used as an immersion
liquid. The value of density can be determined by the following
relation [7,15]:


Wair
r ¼ rt (1)
DW
where rt is the density of the non-solvent liquid (toluene), Wair is
the weight of the CdSSe sample in air and DW is (Wair
Wtol) which
is the difference between the weight of the sample in air and in
toluene. The density of each bulk sample was measured several
times for each composition and then the average value was taken.
The molar volume (VM) can be calculated from this equation [7,15]:
WM
VM ¼ (2)
r
where WM is the molecular weight of each Cd50S50
xSex system.
The accuracy of the measured density and consequently the molar
568 A.S. Hassanien / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 671 (2016) 566e578

volume values with respect to the theoretical values was better 6.0 17.0
than ±0.2%.

Molar volume (cm / mol.)

5.8 16.8

Mass density (gm/cm )

2.4. Optical measurements

3
Mass density
Transmission, T(l) and reflection, R(l) spectra were carried out 5.6 16.6
using a Shimadzu UV310PC; UVeVIS-NIR double beam spectro-
photometer with a reflection attachment of VeN type. The reflec-
tion, R(l) measurements has been achieved at the incident angle 5 5.4 16.4

3
from the normal to the sample surface. T(l) and R(l) were Molar volume
measured at the room temperature (300 K) in the spectral range
5.2 16.2
300 nme2500 nm. The spectral variation of T(l) and R(l) of the
present Cd50S50
xSex thin films as functions of the incident wave-
length were studied before and did not represent here, where they 5.0 16.0
30 35 40 45 50
were published elsewhere [21]. The refractive index, n and
extinction coefficient, k of the present cadmium sulphoselenide Percentage of Se content
amorphous thin films were estimated from the corrected trans-
Fig. 1. The variation of the volumetric mass density and the molar volume with the
mittance, T(l) and the corrected reflectance, R(l) using a computer
percentage of the Se content percent in the ternary non crystalline Cd50S50
xSex
program. systems.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Mass density and molar volume
The measured values of the volumetric mass density r and the
molar volume VM were recorded in Table 1 and illustrated in Fig. 1
as functions of the percentage of Se content. The figure depicts that
both the mass density and the molar volume values of the ternary
Cd50S50
xSex compositions are almost increased linearly by
increasing the percentage of Se content. The empirical equations of
the variation of both r and VM by changing the percentage of Se-
content were given as follows:
r¼ 4:691 þ 0:022X gm=cm3
and
. optical materials [31]. Fig. 2 illustrates the dependence of the
VM ¼ 15:522 þ 0:021X cm3 mol
where X is the percentage of Se content within the glassy
Cd50S50
xSex systems (X ¼ 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50). This behavior can
be attributed due to the density, the atomic radius and the atomic
mass of Se are larger than those of S, where sulfur atoms have been
replaced by selenium atoms [15]. It was clear that, If X ¼ 0 in the
Equations (a-3) and (3-b), the mass density and the molar volume
of the binary glassy CdS system can be obtained, they are 4.691 gm/
cm3 and 15.522 cm3/mol, respectively. These results are in good
agreement with the previous literature [7,24,25]. Generally, it is
expected that the molar volume should show an opposite behavior
to the density, but in the present non-crystalline CdSSe system, the
behavior is different. However, this anomalous behavior was re-
ported earlier for many semiconductors [7,15]. This trend supports
the so-called open structure concept [22,23,25,26].
3.2. Refractive index analysis
Refractive index, n is a distinctive and an essential property for
any optical material. It plays an important role in selecting the
materials used for fabricating the optical devices or in the optical
applications. Consequently, the study of the refractive index
(3-a) behavior is very important, especially many optical phenomena are
dependent upon its value. Refractive index, n is closely related to
both the electronic polarization of ions and the local field inside the
(3-b) refractive index of the chalcogenide amorphous Cd50S50
xSex thin
films upon the incident photon energy. It is clear that, the refractive
index has a normal dispersion in lower energy values of the inci-
dent photons followed by an anomalous dispersion for the high
energy photons (at low wavelengths less than 750 nm).
Generally, this behavior is often observed in semiconducting
chalcogenide thin films [21,27]. Moreover, it was also observed that,
at the lowest energy values of the incident photon, namely less
than hy ¼ 1.75 eV, the values of refractive index were almost
invariant and unchanged. But when the photon energy was
increased, the refractive index rapidly increased, where the

Table 1
The Values of the refractive index, n, dielectric constant, ε1, high dielectric constant, ε∞ , the ratio Nopt/m*, number of charge carriers Nopt, the relaxation time, t, optical mobility
mopt and optical resistivity (ropt) of ternary Cd50S50
xSex thin films [15,21].
The estimated parameter of Cd50S50
xSex thin films The ratio of Se-content percent

X ¼ 30 X ¼ 35 X ¼ 40 X ¼ 45 X ¼ 50

Experimental values of density (g/cm3) 5.339 5.461 5.591 5.699 5.771

Calculated values of the density (g/cm3) 5.341 5.460 5.578 5.697 5.816
Molar volume (cm3/mol) 16.165 16.233 16.328 16.435 16.581
The refractive index, n 2.47 2.45 2.43 2.40 2.38
Imaginary part of dielectric constant, ε1 ¼ n2 6.10 5.99 5.89 5.76 5.66
High frequency dielectric constant, ε∞ 6.521 6.416 6.312 6.209 6.107
The ratio (Nopt/m*)  1055 m
3kg
1 10.82 10.64 10.47 10.30 10.13
Optical charge carriers, Nopt  1025 cm
3 4.337 4.265 4.197 4.128 4.061
The relaxation time, t  10
14 Sec. 2.876 2.070 2.479 6.858 6.628
Optical mobility, mopt  10
3 11.480 8.263 9.895 27.375 26.456
Optical resistivity, ropt  10
5 1.255 1.773 1.505 0.553 0.582
 A.S. Hassanien / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 671 (2016) 566e578
Fig. 2. The variation of the refractive index of ternary amorphous Cd50S50
xSex thin
films as a function of the incident photon energy (eV) [21].
photons begin in the falling on the Cd50S50
xSex thin films in the
absorption region. Increasing of n values with the increasing of hy
was attributed to the matching between the values of the incident
photon's frequency and the plasma frequency, yp. The two fre-
quencies became equal to each other and consequently there is a
resonance effect will arise between the incident electromagnetic
photons and the electron polarization. This led to the coupling of
electrons in ternary Cd50S50
xSex thin films (30  x  50) to the
oscillating electric field. Thereby, the electromagnetic radiation
propagation through thin films will be attenuated but moreover, it
may lead to prevent the propagation of these electromagnetic
waves. This behavior is revealed for all thin film samples of the
ternary chalcogenide Cd50S50
xSex matrix, irrespective of Se per-
centage. On the other hand, as shown in Fig. 2, the values of the
refractive index were found to be dependent upon the composition
as well as on the stoichiometry of the ternary Cd50S50
xSex thin
films, where the increasing of Se content leads to the decreasing of
refractive index. These obtained results are in good agreement and
similar to previous works [27e31].
3.3. Extinction coefficient
Extinction coefficient or the absorption index, k has an important
role in determination of several optical measurements, especially
those are related to the absorption of light waves in the medium and
the dielectric constants. Where, k value measures the fraction of
light lost due to the scattering and absorption per unit distance of
the penetration medium. The extinction coefficient, k was calcu-
lated in a previous work [21] and represented here in Fig. 3 as a
function of the incident photon energy for the thin film samples of
Cd50S50
xSex compositions. The figure reveals that, the extinction
coefficient, k increased with increasing the energy of the incident
photon. It is worthy to mention that, k values were changed within
the order of 10
2. Lower values of k indicate that, the light energy
lost by scattering and absorption per unit distance was having small
values when light propagates through thin films Cd50S50
xSex of the
matrix. Mott and Davis have mentioned a similar trend for many
others of amorphous semiconductor thin films [32,33].
3.4. Determination of the dielectric constants
3.4.1. High frequency dielectric constant
The dielectric constant of the material is determined by
569
Fig. 3. The dependence of the extinction coefficient, k upon the incident photon en-
ergy of the chalcogenide non-crystalline thin films of Cd50S50
xSex systems.
electronic, ionic, dipolar and space charge polarization. The space
charge contribution depends on the purity and the perfection of the
glass samples. Generally the influence of the space charge contri-
bution is strongly noticeable in the low frequency region. The
refractive index accurate data can be analyzed to get the high fre-
quency dielectric constant, ε∞ and the ratio of the charge carrier
concentrations to the effective mass, N/m* by using the free carriers
contribution and the dispersion vibration modes. The refractive
index is related to the dielectric constant, ε∞ and the ratio N/m* by
the following equation [34]:

2 

1 e Nopt 2
n2 ¼ ε∞
l (4)
4p2 ε0 c2 m
where e is the electronic charge, Nopt is the number of the carrier
concentrations, εo is the electric permittivity of the free space or air,
c is the speed of light waves and m* is the effective mass of the
charge carriers. Consequently, plotting a graph between the values
of the square of the refractive index, n2 on y-axis and the square of
the incident wavelength value, l2 on x-axis leads to obtain a
straight line. The extrapolation of this line will intercept n2-axis (at
l2 ¼ 0) in a certain value. This value gives the high frequency
dielectric constant, ε∞. While the ratio (Nopt/m*) can be calculated
from the slope of the obtained straight line.
Fig. 4 shows the nature of the dispersion of the refractive index
of the amorphous thin films of the chalcogenide Cd50S50
xSex
network as a function of the square values of the incident wave-
length (l2). It was observed that, the dependence of n2 upon l2 is
almost linear at the longest wavelength region. The calculated
values of both the high frequency dielectric constant, ε∞ and the
ratio Nopt/m* were reported in Table 1. Fig. 4 illustrates also the
anomalous dispersion of the refractive index in the region of lower
wavelengths, it rapidly decreased with increasing the wavelength
of the incident light. Furthermore, when the frequency of the
incident photon is increased, the refractive index will be increased
which is attributed to the increase of the absorption of electro-
magnetic radiation. Moreover, the refractive index became have
higher values when the frequency of the electromagnetic radiation
crosses the region of the characteristic frequency of the electron. As
a result, there is no propagation of electromagnetic radiation
through the CdSSe thin films.
Table 1 reveals also that, obtained values of the high frequency
dielectric constant ε∞ were larger than n2,(i.e. ε∞ > n2). This means
570 A.S. Hassanien / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 671 (2016) 566e578
Fig. 4. Representation of n2 versus l2 (nm)2 of the ternary Cd50S50
xSex thin films, to
get the high frequency dielectric constant, ε∞ and the ratio Nopt/m*.
that the free charge carriers contribute in the polarization process
within thin films of the ternary Cd50S50
xSex systems when the
light rays fall upon them [35,36]. The values of n, ε1 andε∞ have
been listed in Table 1 and graphically represented in Fig. 5 as
functions of the Se content percent of the ternary CdSSe network. It
is observed that, all these parameters were decreased linearly by
increasing the Se concentration in the CdSSe thin films. These ob-
tained results are in good agreement with the other chalcogenide
thin films [26,36].
3.4.2. Real and imaginary parts of the dielectric constant
The complex dielectric constant, ε* is an important parameter
for determining the other optical parameters such as the volume
and surface energy loss functions, (VELF) and (SELF), respectively,
the dielectric loss tangent or dissipation factor, tan d, the dielectric
relaxation time, t, the plasma and damping frequencies and many
other optical parameters [27,37e39]. The complex dielectric con-
stant, ε* is related to its real and imaginary parts by this simple
relation ε* ¼ ε1 þ iε2. Moreover, the real part of the dielectric
constant, ε1 is related to the dispersion of the electromagnetic
waves that travels within the material and it is also responsible for
slowing down of the propagation speed of the electromagnetic
waves through the material. On the other hand, the imaginary part,
ε2 is responsible for the energy absorption from electric field due to
dipole motion, so it provides a measure of the disruptive rate of the
wave in the sample [39,40]. Real and imaginary parts of electronic
dielectric constants, ε1 and ε2 are related to the values of refractive
index, n and extinction coefficient, k by the following equations
[41]:
ε1 ¼ n2
k2
and
ε2 ¼ 2nk
The dependence of ε1 and ε2 values of non crystalline CdeSeSe
thin films upon the incident photon wavelength is shown in
Fig. 6(a) and (b) respectively. It was clear that, the values of the real
part of dielectric constant were more than those of the imaginary
part (ε1 » ε2). This is due to the values of ε1 are strongly depends on
the refractive index where n » k, while the values of ε2 depend
mainly on k values where the small values of k reduce the values of
Fig. 5. The linear dependence of the refractive index, n, real part of the dielectric
constant, ε1 and the high frequency dielectric constant, ε∞ upon the Se content percent
of the ternary amorphous CdSSe thin films.
nk product. It was also observed that, the two graphs of ε1 and ε2
have relatively similar behaviors to each other. At the beginning of
the two graphs it was noted that, both of ε1 and ε2 were dramati-
cally decreased to the lowest values when the incident wavelength
becomes 800 nm. While at higher wavelengths, they are mainly
unchanged. The variation of the dielectric constants with the inci-
dent photon energy indicates that, there are some interactions
occurred between the incident photons and the free electrons in
the studied range. Fig. 6(a) and (b) also illustrate that, the values of
the real and imaginary parts of the dielectric constant (ε1 and ε2)
decreased with the addition of more Se to the ternary thin films of
Cd50S50
xSex matrix.
These results mean that, the addition of more Se to the thin films
of CdSSe network made the electromagnetic waves travel easier
and faster within the amorphous Cd50S50
xSex thin films because
(5-a) the dispersion and absorption of electromagnetic waves were
decreased [37e39]. Consequently, it can conclude here that, the
addition of more Se to ternary Cd50S50
xSex matrix reduced the
energy dissipative and destructive rates of the incident light waves
(5-b) on thin films which led to increase the speed of propagation of the
incident electromagnetic waves through CdSSe thin films, and
consequently led to increases the optical conductivity.
3.5. Opto-electrical constants
Drude free electron model shows that, both the real part, ε1 and
imaginary part, ε2 of the dielectric constant are dependent upon the
 A.S. Hassanien / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 671 (2016) 566e578 571

Fig. 7. The variation of the imaginary part of the dielectric constant, ε2 with l3 (nm)3 of
the ternary CdSSe thin films, to determine the relaxation time.

2.070  10
14 and 6.628  10
14 S, which is agreed with the pre-
vious literature [42].
Furthermore, the optical mobility, mopt and the optical resistivity,
ropt of the present chalcogenide amorphous CdSSe thin films can be
determined by using the obtained values of Nopt and t, from these
equations [44]:

et
mopt ¼ (7-a)
m*

and

1
ropt ¼ (7-b)
emopt Nopt

The estimated values of optical carrier concentrations, Nopt,

Fig. 6. The variation of the dielectric constants of the amorphous CdSSe thin films with
the incident wavelength (a) the real dielectric constant, ε1 ¼ (n2 e k2) and (b) the
imaginary dielectric constant, ε2 ¼ 2nk.
relaxation time, t, optical mobility, mopt and optical resistivity, ropt of
Cd50S50
xSex thin films were listed in Table 1. The obtained values
are closer to the values of other chalcogenide reported in literature
[48,43e45].

wavelength of the incident photon according to the Equation (4) 3.6. Volume and surface energy loss functions
and the following relation [42,43]:

2 

 Pines and Bohm suggested that, due to the excitation of plasma
1 e Nopt 1 3
ε2 ¼ l (6) oscillations in the sea of conduction electrons, there are charac-
4p3 εo c3 m t teristic energy losses experienced by the fast moving electrons in
passing through the material [46]. The energy loss is related to the
where t is the relaxation time, e and m* are the electronic charge
optical properties of the material through the dielectric function.
and the effective mass of the free carriers, respectively. From
The probability that the fast electrons will lose energy when trav-
Equation (6), the plotting of a graph between the values of ε2 on y-
eling within the material and on its surface is defined as the volume
axis and l3 on x-axis gives a straight line of slope equals



 and the surface energy loss functions [47]. These functions are (i)
1 e2 Nopt 1 the volume energy loss function, VELF and (ii) the surface energy
4p ε
3 c3 m* t . Consequently, the value of the relaxation
o
loss function, SELF. These two functions are related to real and
time, t of the amorphous thin films of the chalcogenide cadmium imaginary parts ε1 and ε2 of the complex dielectric constant by the
sulphoselenide matrix can be estimated after determining the following relationships [48,49]:
slope of the straight lines and using the calculated values of (Nopt/
m*). At the same time, Q. Shen et al. gave a relation correlates be- ε2
VELF¼   (8)
tween m* and mo. This relation was given as follows: m* ¼ (0.44) mo ε21 þ ε22
[38,39], therefore the values of the free carrier concentrations Nopt
can be evaluated. Fig. 7 shows the variations of the imaginary part and
of the dielectric constant, ε2 with l3 for the present thin films of
ε1
CdSSe matrix with different Se concentrations. The estimated SELF ¼ h i (9)
values of both Nopt and t were recorded in Table 1. It was observed ðε1 þ 1Þ2 þ ε22
that, the values of the relaxation time t were ranged between
572 A.S. Hassanien / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 671 (2016) 566e578
The dependence of the volume and the surface energy losses
upon the incident photon energy of non crystalline chalcogenide
Cd50S50
xSex thin film were shown in Fig. 8(a) and (b), respectively.
As obvious, both VELF and SELF were decreased rapidly with
increasing the incident photon wavelength until 700 nm i.e. in the
absorption region. After this wavelength their values were slightly
changed. It worth to mention here that, the value of VELF decreased
from about 0.045 to 0.004 while the value of SELF decreased from
about 0.027 to 0.001 when the Se percentage in the CdSSe matrix
was increased from 30% to 50%. These results strongly agree and
confirm the results which obtained from the study dielectric con-
stants. On the other hand and as depicted from Fig. 8(a) and (b)
that, the volume energy loss function is greater than the surface
energy loss function (VELF > SELF) for any incident photon energies
for all Se concentrations. Consequently, the energy loss of the free
charge carriers when traversing within Cd50S50
xSex thin films is
larger than that when traversing on the surface. This result is in
good agreement with literature [27,49].
3.7. Dielectric loss factor
The dielectric loss factor is defined as the phase difference due
to the loss of the energy within the sample at a particular fre-
quency. The contribution to the dielectric loss is mainly attributed
to the thermally activated relaxation of freely rotating dipoles
Fig. 8. The spectral variation of the volume and surface energy loss functions of the
ternary CdSSe thin films with the incident wavelength (a) VELF and (b) SELF.
where the thermal energy is the only type of relaxation. While at
higher temperatures, it is due to the electrical conduction with a
hopping motion of ions. The dielectric loss tangent or the dissipa-
tion factor, tan d also measures the loss-rate of the mechanical
mode power, like the oscillation in any dissipative system [50]. It
must take into consideration that, the dissipation factor or the loss
factor is the reciprocal of quality factor, tan d ¼ 1/QF, which rep-
resents the quality or durability of oscillation. The Dielectric loss,
tan d can be calculated in terms of the values of the real and the
imaginary parts of the complex dielectric constant, as give by the
following equation [51]:
tan d ¼ ε2 =ε1 (10)
The dependence of tan d upon the incident photon energy of the
non crystalline chalcogenide Cd50S50
xSex thin films was depicted
in Fig. 9. It was clear that, the dissipation factor, tan d is almost
constant with increasing the photon energy until the incident en-
ergy is equal to about 1.75 eV. After which and in the region of high
photon energy, its value increased. Hence, the dissipation factor, tan
d showed a strong dependence upon the energy of incident pho-
tons. This trend was observed for many chalcogenide thin films
[27,38,45].
Moreover, the values of the dielectric loss factor were found to
be decreased by increasing the Se content, which confirm that the
addition of more Se to Cd50S50
xSex matrix led to minimize the
energy losses. It worth to mention here that, the dielectric loss
peaks were not observed with the variations of the incident photon
energy as one expected in dielectric relaxation phenomena. How-
ever, the results could be explained in terms of hopping of charge
carriers over a potential barrier between the charged defect states
[32,33].
3.8. Dielectric relaxation time
The dielectric relaxation time, t measures the time that is
required by the electric charges in the semiconducting materials to
become neutralized during the conduction process. The value of
this time is infinitesimal in the case of metals, but it is considered to
be small in semiconductors and large for insulators. The value of t
can be calculated by using the following equation [52]:
t ¼ ðε∞
ε1 Þ=uε2 (11)
Fig. 9. Variation of the dielectric loss, tan d of the ternary amorphous CdSSe thin films
with the incident photon energy.
 A.S. Hassanien / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 671 (2016) 566e578 573

The variation of the dielectric relaxation time with the incident

photon energy of the non crystalline CdSSe thin films was shown in
Fig. 10. It was found that, this relaxation time was strongly
dependent upon the incident photon energy, as well as it increased
by increasing the Se concentration. It was also clear that, the
dielectric relaxation time of all amorphous film samples of the
CdSSe matrix became almost have the same value when the inci-
dent photon energy becomes about 3.22 eV. It was also illustrated
that, there were no explicit peaks. Generally, the dielectric relaxa-
tion time of non crystalline chalcogenide materials has been a
subject of high controversies therefore many researchers do not
resort to determine its value as well as its study.

3.9. Determination of plasma and damping frequencies

When the electron damping parameter becomes less than the

dielectric constant, the real part of the dielectric constant, ε1, the
high frequency dielectric constant, ε∞ and the plasma frequency, uP
in the range of the transparency (long wavelength side), are
correlated to each other by the following equation [53]:

u2P
ε1 ¼ ε∞
  (12)
u2

Therefore, the plotting of a graph between the values of ε1 and 1/

u2 gives a straight line of slope equals u2P and intercept the ordinate
in a value equals ε∞. Fig. 11(a) shows the variation of ε1 of the CdSSe
thin films with 1/u2. As a result, the values of ε∞ and u2P can be
estimated and then recorded in Table 2. If a comparison was held
between the obtained values of the high frequency dielectric con-
stant, ε∞ those obtained from Equations (4) and (12), and have been
listed in Tables 1 and 2, one can observe that, the two values were
approximately coincide with each other. Moreover, the values of uP
are consistent with those of the other chalcogenide thin films Fig. 11. Representation of the variation of (a) the real part of the dielectric constant, ε1
[53,54]. Sometimes the plasma frequency, uP of collective oscilla- against (1/u2) and (b) the value [1/u2(1
ε1)] against (1/u2) of the chalcogenide
tions of the free electrons and the damping frequency, ud are Cd50S50
xSex thin films to get the plasma frequency.
known as Drude parameters [55e57].
These parameters can be calculated from the refractive index, n
and extinction coefficient, k as well as they can be estimated also
from the dielectric constants ε1 and ε2. In the view of Drude's free u2P
electron model, both uP and ud can be deduced from the following ε ¼ ε1 þ iε2 ¼ ðn
ikÞ2 ¼ ε∞
(13)
u2 þ iuud
equation [55,56]:
where ε∞ is the high frequency dielectric constant, up and ud are
the plasma and damping frequencies expressed in cm
1. Separating
real and imaginary parts of the Equation (13) to get the following
equations [56]:

u2P
ε1 ¼ ε∞
 (14-a)
u2 þ u2d

and

u2P
ε2 ¼  (14-b)
u u2 þ u2d

Rearranging Equations (14-a) and (14-b) to get the following

equation [56,57]:

1 u2 þ ud
¼ (15)
ð1
ε1 Þ u2P
Fig. 10. The dependence of the dielectric relaxation time upon the incident photon
energy for the ternary CdSSe thin films. Reformulating that equation, one can get:
574 A.S. Hassanien / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 671 (2016) 566e578

Table 2
The values of: high frequency dielectric constant, ε∞ , plasma frequency, uP, damping frequency, ud, reflection loss, RL, average molar refraction, Rm and electronic polariz-
ability, ap of amorphous chalcogenide CdSSe thin films.

The estimated parameter of Cd50S50
xSex thin films The ratio of Se-content percent

X ¼ 30 X ¼ 35 X ¼ 40 X ¼ 45 X ¼ 50

High frequency dielectric constant, ε∞ From Eq. (12) 6.478 6.396 6.304 6.203 6.014
The plasma frequency, uP  1014 Hz, From Eq. (12) 3.042 2.989 3.086 3.124 3.189
The plasma frequency, uP  1016 Hz, From Eq. (16) 7.132 7.954 8.374 13.811 16.062
The damping frequency, ud  1032 Hz, From Eq. (16) 7.959 7.159 5.548 2.555 2.064
Reflection loss RL, (n2
1)/(n2þ2) 0.630 0.625 0.620 0.613 0.609
The average molar refraction, Rm cm3/mol. 10.184 10.146 10.091 10.074 9.901
Electronic polarizability, ap (  10
24 cm3) or Å3 14.02 13.66 13.26 12.87 12.38
The ratio between the average molar refraction and the molar volume 0.628 0.625 0.618 0.613 0.597
Covalency parameter or Metallization parameter, M 0.372 0.375 0.382 0.387 0.403
Optical electronegativity, hopt 1.793 1.797 1.801 1.806 1.810
Optical non-linear susceptibility  10
12 4.615 4.269 3.946 3.501 3.227

This parameter can be determined in terms of the real and imagi-

1 ud 1 nary parts of the complex dielectric constant ε1 and ε2 as follows
¼ þ (16)
u2 ð1
ε1 Þ u2p u2 u2P [36,60]:

Therefore, the plotting of a graph between the value of the left

  sOpt ¼ s1 ðuÞ þ is2 ðuÞ (18)

hand side of the last equation 1 u2 ð1
ε Þ of the CdSSe thin films

1

and [1/u2] will give a straight line of slope equals ðud =u2P Þ and in-
tercepts the ordinate in ð1=u2P Þ. Thereby, plasma frequency, uP can
be determined by the interception part. While, the damping fre-
quency, ud can be estimated from the slope by knowing the
calculated value of uP. Fig. 11(b) represents the plotting of the left
hand side of Equation (16), [1/u2(1
ε1)] against the value of right
hand side, (1/u2) for the chalcogenide Cd50S50
xSex thin films. As
shown in this figure, the curves were fitted for all CdSSe thin films
to get straight lines in the investigated range of the reciprocal of the
square of the angular frequency. The values of both the plasma and
the damping frequencies were calculated and recorded in Table 2. It
was also noted that, increasing of Se content of the Cd50S50
xSex
thin films led to increase the plasma frequency and decreasing the
damping frequency. The estimated values of the plasma frequency
using Equation (16) and Fig. 11(b) were found to be higher than
those obtained by using Equation (12) and Fig. 11(a) by about 102
times. Generally the investigated values of the plasma frequency
are almost consistent with the other chalcogenide thin films for the
two cases [53,54].
Furthermore, the ratio of the optical carrier concentration over
the electron effective mass, Nopt/m* and according to Drude's the-
ory of the dielectric is given as follows [58,59]:
s1 ðuÞ ¼ uεo ε2 (19-a)
and
s2 ðuÞ ¼ uεo ε1 (19-b)
where u is the angular frequency and εo is the electric permittivity
of free space. The dependence of s1(u) and s2(u) of the amorphous
chalcogenide Cd50S50
xSex thin films on the photon energy was
shown in Fig. 12(a) and (b). It was observed that, the optical con-
ductivities s1(u) and s2(u) increased with increasing the angular
frequency, u, as well as they increased with increasing the Se-
content in the ternary chalcogenide CdSSe matrix [60]. These re-
sults are entirely consistent with the results of each of the dielectric
loss factor and the energy loss functions. It was also revealed that,
the values of s2(u) are larger than those of s1(u), as well as no peaks
were observed in all amorphous Cd50S50
xSex thin films at all fre-
quencies. This suggests that, the increase in optical conductivity is
due to the excitation of electrons by the incident photon energy.
These results are in great agreement with the other researches of
semiconductor thin films [58,61].

Nopt εo ε∞ 3.11. Electronic polarizability

¼ 2  u2P (17-a)
m e
The average electronic polarizability of ions is considered to be
hence
one of the most significant characteristics of any material. It is
ε0 ε∞ closely related to the applicability in the field of optics and elec-
Nopt ¼  u2P m (17-b) tronics. It was found that, optical non-linearity is caused by the
e2
electronic polarization of the material as its exposure to intense
where εo is the permittivity of free space, e is the elementary charge light beams. Hence, the nonlinear response of the material is gov-
of the electron and m* is the effective mass of the free electron and erned by the electronic polarizability [62e65]. For this purpose, the
Nopt is the optical carrier concentration in the conduction band. high optical nonlinearity materials have to be designed or manu-
Using Equation (17-b), the ratio Nopt/m* and Nopt can be re- factured on the basis of a correlation linked between optical
calculated. The estimated values are relatively in good agreement nonlinearity and the other electronic properties which can be easily
with the carrier concentration of other chalcogenide semi- understandable and accessible. Duffy, Dimitrov and Sakka corre-
conductors [39,58,59]. lated many independent linear optical entities to the electronic
polarizability [66e68]. This polarizability approach, predominantly
3.10. Complex optical conductivity gives the insight into the strong relation between covalent/ionic
nature of materials and other optical parameters. For isotropic
The complex optical conductivity, s*Opt is a significant parameter, substances such as non crystalline compositions, the average molar
where it measures the electronic state density within the materials. refraction Rm is given by the LorentzeLorenz equation [59,62]:
 A.S. Hassanien / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 671 (2016) 566e578 575

electronic polarizability, ap, the mass density, r and the molar

volume, VM as follows [64,65]:
 2 
n
1 4pNr
 ¼ ap (22)
n2 þ 2 3M

where the value (4p/3) is a constant of the LorentzeLorentz func-

tion, N is the Avogadro's number, M is the molecular weight of the
chalcogenide amorphous Cd50S50
xSex compositions and the
quantity (n2
1)/(n2þ2) is called the reflection loss, RL. The
dependence of RL of the present Cd50S50
xSex thin films upon the
incident photon energy was shown in Fig. 13. From the extrapola-
tion of linear region towards Y-axis, the values of electronic polar-
izability, ap of ternary Cd50S50
xSex thin films have been
determined and recorded in Table 2.
On the other hand, the value of the reflection loss
factor, RL ¼ (n2
1)/(n2þ2) was calculated and recorded in Table 2,
as well as it was represented in Fig. 14(a) as function of the per-
centage of Se content in thin films of Cd50S50
xSex compositions.
It was found that the reflection loss RL is linearly decreased with
increasing Se according to the following empirical equation:
 2 
n
1
RL ¼  2  ¼ 0:663
0:011X (23)
n þ2

where X is the percentage of Se-content in the amorphous ternary

Cd50S50
xSex thin films (X ¼ 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50).
Furthermore the average molar refraction, Rm was estimated
from Equation (20). The estimated values of Rm were reported in
Table 2 and have been represented in Fig. 14(b) against the ratio of
Se-content in the CdSSe thin films. The figure reveals that, Rm
decreased linearly also by increasing the Se content according to
this empirical equation:
.
Rm ¼ 10:589
0:013X cm3 mol (24)

The decreasing value of RL and Rm led to decrease the value of

Fig. 12. The variation of the real and imaginary parts of the optical conductivity (a) real
the electronic polarizability. This result confirms the results ob-
part, s1(u) and (b) imaginary part, s2(u) with the angular frequencies of the chalco- tained from the graphical representation of the RL against the
genide Cd50S50
xSex thin films. incident photon energy as shown in Fig. 13. The values of the
electronic polarizability were already found to be decreased from
14.02  10
24 cm3 to 12.38  10
24 cm3 when the Se percentage
 2   2  was increased from 30% to 50%. When plotting of the electronic
n
1 M n
1
Rm ¼ 2  ¼ 2  VM (20)
n þ2 r n þ2

The average molar refraction, Rm is related to the structure of

non-crystalline materials and is proportional to the electronic
polarizability of the material, ap (measured in cm3or Ǻ3) through
the ClausiuseMosotti relation [62,65]:

3RM
ap ¼ (21-a)
4pN

or

4pN
Rm ¼ ap (21-b)
3
The electronic polarizability, ap gives the magnitude of the
electronic response to the application of an electromagnetic field
on the electron clouds. The polarizability of CdSSe thin films can be
calculated using LorentzeLorenz equation and Clausiuse Mosotti
local-field polarizability model [49,63]. Solving the last two equa-
tions simultaneously with each other. One can get an equation Fig. 13. The dependence of the reflection loss, RF upon the incident photon energy
describes the relationship between the refractive index, n, the (eV).
576 A.S. Hassanien / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 671 (2016) 566e578

Fig. 14. The dependence of the average molar refraction, Rm and reflection loss, RL
upon the percentage of the Se-content in the ternary amourphous Cd50S50
xSex
system.

polarizability, ap versus the refractive index, n for the present

chalcogenide CdSSe thin films as illustrated in Fig. 15(a), a straight
line can be obtained. This means that, there is a direct proportion
between ap and n. This result confirms that the present
Cd50S50
xSex thin films have the amorphous structures as sug-
gested by Zemel J.N. et al. [34].
Furthermore, it was found that, there is an inversely proportion
between the values of ap and the percentage of Se contents in
CdSSe thin films, which has been depicted in Fig. 15(b). The
decreasing value of the electronic polarizability, ap has been line-
arly fitted to give the following empirical equation:

ap cm3 ¼ ð1:65
0:0082XÞ  10
23
where X is the percentage of the Se content within the CdSSe thin
films. The electronic polarizability of the two binary systems of CdS
and CdSe can be easily obtained from this empirical equation; they
1.65  10
23 (cm3) and 1.24  10
23 (cm3), respectively. The
decreasing of ap may be attributed to the radius, the size and the
mass density (r) of Se atoms is larger than those of S atoms which
lead to decrease the volume of the electronic spaces [1,21,24,64,66],
as well as due to the decreasing of the volume occupied by the
electrons [59]. The obtained values of the electronic polarizability
were relatively large but acceptable. Unfortunately the author
couldn't get similar previous works to compare with the obtained
results.
3.12. Covalency parameter
The Covalency or metallization parameter, M describes the
metallic or insulating behavior of samples [69]. This parameter M is
given by this equation [66e68]:
M ¼ 1
ðRm =Vm Þ
Fig. 15. The dependence of the electronic polarizability (aP) upon (a) the refractive
index, n, (b) the Se content % in the amorphous Cd50S50
xSex thin films.
(25)
amorphous Cd50S50
xSex films were estimated and listed in Table 2.
It was obvious that, all thin films of Cd50S50
xSex matrix have
covalency parameter values less than one and they increased by
increasing the Se content. This means that amorphous thin films of
Cd50S50
xSex system don't have the metallic nature. But as
mentioned Duffy, Dimitrov and Sakka, like the present samples
which their M values were ranging between 0.372 and 0.403, they
have highly polarisable cations [66e69]. This result confirms the
results those obtained from the electronic polarizability [72,73].
3.13. Optical electronegativity
Duffy suggested the concept of optical electronegativity. He
used this parameter to estimate many physicoechemical parame-
ters of the materials [70]. The optical electronegativity, hopt means
that the tendency of an atom or radical to attract electrons to form
the ionic bond. The values of hopt of the chalcogenide amorphous
Cd50S50
xSex thin films can be determined using Duffy's model
[70,71]. This model is more accurate for almost compositions those
used in opto-electronic structures. The relation between the
(26) refractive index and electronegativity is given as follows [72]:

where Rm is the average molar refraction and Vm is the molar vol-  1=4
A
ume. According to the value of this parameter, the material shows a hopt ¼ (27)
n
metallic nature if M > 1 but if M < 1, it exhibits an insulating
behavior. The values of the covalency parameter of the present
 A.S. Hassanien / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 671 (2016) 566e578
where A is a unitless constant value equals 25.54 for almost all
materials [72]. The optical electronegativity values were calculated
and listed in Table 2, as well as it has been represented in Fig. 16(a)
versus of the percentage of Se content of the amorphous thin films
of Cd50S50
xSex matrix. The figure shows that, there is a linear
relationship between hopt and the Se-contain, which obeys the
following empirical equation:
hopt ¼ 1:77 þ 8:25  10
4 X
where X is the Se-content percent (50  X  30). The electroneg-
ativity of any Cd50S50
xSex composition, if even CdS or CdSe can be
theoretically calculated from this relation. It was observed that, hopt
values of Cd50S50
xSex semiconducting compounds slightly
increased from 1.793 to become 1.810 as the Se was increased from
30% to 50%. The increasing of hopt arose due to it is dependent upon
the refractive index, which is decreased when the ratio of Se-
content was increased. Moreover, the magnitude of optical elec-
tronegativity indicates to the nature of the bonding in the mate-
rials. The small observed values of optical electronegativity, hopt and
the relatively high values of the refractive index of the amorphous
Cd50S50
xSex systems may be due to their covalent nature [72].
3.14. Third order nonlinear optical susceptibility
The nonlinear optical response can occur when there is a suf-
ficiently intense illumination. The non-linearity is exhibited in the
polarization of the material, which is often represented by a power
series expansion of the total applied optical field [73]. The third-
order nonlinear optical susceptibility c(3) of CdSSe thin films can
be evaluated from the following equation [74]:
" #4
n2
1
cð3Þ ¼ B
ð4pÞ
where B is a constant value for all materials equals to
1.7  10
10 esu and is independent upon the frequency, while n is
the refractive index of samples [1,75].
The values of third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility was
estimated for Cd50S50
xSex thin films and tabulated in Table 2. The
estimated values of c(3) was plotted in Fig. 16(b) versus the Se
Fig. 16. Representation of the variation of (a) the optical electronegativity (b) optical
susceptibility of the chalcogenide Cd50S50
xSex thin films.
577
content percent. The figure illustrates that, the third-order
nonlinear optical susceptibility of CdSSe thin films has been line-
arly fitted to get the following empirical straight line equation:
cð3Þ ¼ ð6:75
0:0071XÞ  10
12 (30)
where X is the percentage of the Se-contained in the CdSSe films. As
obvious, the value of c(3) decreased with increasing the Se ratio,
(28) where the straight line has a negative slope. The decreasing of c(3) is
due to the decreasing of the refractive index of Cd50S50
xSex thin
films as the percentage of the Se element was increased. These
results are in good agreement with the previous literature [1,75].
4. Conclusion
Refractive index, n and extinction coefficient, k of the amor-
phous chalcogenide Cd50S50
xSex thin films were used to deter-
mine almost all studied properties and parameters. The high
frequency dielectric constant, ε∞, real and imaginary parts of the
dielectric constant (ε1, ε2) were investigated. It was found that
ε∞ > n2 which means that, free charge carriers contribute in the
polarization process within CdSSe thin films. The variation of the
real and imaginary parts of dielectric constants with the incident
photon energy indicates that there are interactions between the
incident photons and the free electrons. The relaxation time, t, the
optical mobility, mopt and the optical resistivity, ropt were estimated.
The values of VELF and SELF were found to be decreased from 0.045
to 0.004 and from 0.027 to 0.001, respectively when Se-content was
increased. The dielectric loss factor showed a strong dependence on
the energy of incident photons and Se content, as well as it
decreased by increasing the Se content. The addition of more Se to
the amorphous thin films of Cd50S50
xSex matrix led to minimize
(29)
the energy loss. The dielectric relaxation time was found to be
strongly dependent upon the incident photon energy and the Se
content, but it became almost invariant at the photon energy
z3.22 eV for all films. Plasma frequency, damping frequency and
optical carrier concentrations in the conduction band were esti-
mated and studied by different methods. Complex optical con-
ductivity was studied and it was found that s1 (u) and s2 (u) were
increased with increasing the angular frequency (u) and the Se
content. These results are entirely consistent with the results of the
dielectric loss factor and the energy loss functions. It was found
that, s2(u) > s1(u) for all films at all frequencies. Increasing of the Se
content in Cd50S50
xSex thin films led to increase the propagation
speed of electromagnetic waves when they travel within
Cd50S50
xSex thin films. The values of electronic polarizability, ap
decreased from 1.402  10
23 to 1.238  10
23 cm3 as the Se ratio
was increased in Cd50S50
xSex thin films from 30% to 50% where the
values of ap are inversely proportion to the Se contents. The esti-
mated value of the optical electronegativity, hopt slightly increased
from 1.793 to 1.810 while the third-order non-linear optical sus-
ceptibility of CdSSe thin films decreased from 4.615  10
12 to
3.226  10
12 by increasing the Se-content.
Acknowledgment
The author would like to thank Prof. Dr. Alaa A. Akl, Physics
Department, Faculty of Science, Minia University, Egypt and now he
is on leave to: Physics Department, Faculty of Science and Hu-
manities in Ad-Dawadmi, Shaqra university, Saudi Arabia, for his
encouragement and his assistance during the preparation of the
present amorphous CdSSe samples.
578 A.S. Hassanien / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 671 (2016) 566e578

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