Physics Journal Vol. 2, No. 2, 2016, pp. 88-95 http://www.aiscience.org/journal/pj * Corresponding author E-mail address: okolinonsolivinus@gmail.com (L. N. Okoli) Time Optimization of Chemically Deposited Cadmium Silver Sulphide (CdAgS) Ternary Thin Films at Room Temperature L. N. Okoli 1, * , I. A. Ezenwa 1 , C. I. Elekalachi 1 , O. T. Okpaneje 2 , V. C. Okoye 1 1 Department of Industrial Physics, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Uli, Anambra State, Nigeria 2 Department of Physics Education, Federal College of Education (Technical), Umunze, Anambra State, Nigeria Abstract Chemical bath method of thin film deposition has being successfully used to deposit thin films of Cadmium Silver Sulphide (CdAgS) at room temperature from the mixture of aqueous solutions of Cadmium chloride hemi(pentahydrate), CdCl 2 . 2.5H 2 O, Silver nitrate (AgNO 3 ) and Thiourea, they serve as precursors for Cd 2+ , Ag 2+ and S 2- . Triethanolamine (TEA) was employed as the complexing agent while ammonium solution was used as a pH stabilizer. Deposition time as bath parameter was optimized. Five samples of Cadmium sliver sulphide films were fabricated at various time intervals of 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, 4 hours and 5 hours. Optical properties of the films were studied using VU – VIS – NIR spectrophotometer within VIS and NIR regions. Micrographs of the films were taken using microphotometer. The as – grown films have low absorbance and high transmittance in VIS and NIR regions. Energy band gap of the films ranges from 1.90 eV – 2.40 eV. Micrographs of the films were analyzed using ImageJ, the average particle sizes of 94.54 nm – 723.71 nm was obtained. Keywords Thin Films, Chemical Bath Deposition, Optical Properties, Energy Band Gap, Micrographs Received: September 16, 2015 / Accepted: October 15, 2015 / Published online: January 11, 2016 @ 2016 The Authors. Published by American Institute of Science. This Open Access article is under the CC BY-NC license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1. Introduction Thin film forms the basis for today’s electronic components. Even complicated device structures are constructed from thin films. According to [1], a material is said to be a thin film when it is built up as a thin layer on a substrate by controlled condensation of the individual atomic, molecular or ionic species directly by a physical process or through a chemical or electrochemical reaction. Thin film as defined by [2], is a crystalline or non-crystalline material developed two dimensionally on a substrate surface by physical or chemical method. A thin film can be binary, ternary, and quaternary, depending on the number of elements that make up the film. Ternary thin films are thin films that contain three different elements [3]. According to [4], preparation and study of physical properties of ternary chalcogenide compounds have increased in recent years. There is considerable interest in the deposition of ternary derivative material, due to the potential of tailoring both the lattice parameters and the band gap by controlling depositions parameters [5]. Ternary thin film compounds are found to be suitable materials for optoelectronic device applications and good material for window layer solar cells [6]. Some of these films have been investigated for use as superionic conducting materials [7]. Ternary compounds had also been studied for efficient solar energy conversion materials [8]. Ternary thin film of cadmium silver sulphide can be viewed as altering the properties of two semiconducting thin films of CdS and AgS to produce a thin film with properties falling between the properties of the two parents films. Some properties and applications of these parents’ binary semiconducting films of cadmium silver