Synthesis Characterization and Applications of CdS1XTex Thin Films

Abstract

The preparation of CdS and CdTe binary compounds and CdS1-xTex ternary newlinecompound have been carried out by different researchers using various thin film newlinedeposition techniques. The deposition method used for the thin film deposition has the newlinedirect impact on the thin film properties and its applications. Chemical spray pyrolysis newlinetechnique is one of the best suited technique for the deposition of good quality newlinechalcogenide thin film in binary, ternary, and quaternary. It is simple, cost effective, newlinenon-vacuum processing, and easy to handle which can be used at moderate newlinetemperature range (100-600 0C). The film properties like thickness, crystallinity, newlinecomposition, morphology can be easily tailored using the spray parameters. newlineConsidering these merits, it was decided to use the chemical spray pyrolysis technique newlinefor deposition of CdS1-xTex thin films. newlineThe proposed research work is carried out in three steps:(1) Deposition of newlineuniform and good quality CdS, CdTe and CdS1-xTex thin films, employing spray newlinepyrolysis method. (2) The physical characterization like XRD, SEM, EDAX, newlineelectrical, TEP etc. of the as-deposited thin films. (3) The photoelectrochemical study newlineof the as-deposited thin films. newlineThe good quality CdS1-xTex thin films were deposited on well cleaned newlineamorphous glass substrates as well as on FTO coated glass substrates (sheet resistance newline15 and#937;cm-2) at optimized preparative parameters. Thickness of the films, measured by newlineweight gravity method, was found in the range 302 - 497 nm. XRD technique was used newlinefor the structural investigations, which showed all films are grown with polycrystalline newlinenature and the grain size was found in the range 11.86 43.56 nm. SEM technique newlinewas used for the morphology analysis, it was observed that films are grown with needle newlineshaped grains with defect free morphology. EDAX technique was used for the newlineelemental analysis which confirmed the presence of Cd, S, and Te elements within the newlinefilms with good stoichiometry. UV-Visible spectroscopy was used for the optical newlinestudy; the optical band gap wa