Development and Characterization of As-Deposited CdTe Thin Films in a Non-Aqueous Medium

Abstract

Cadmium telluride (CdTe) is a binary II-VI direct band gap semiconducting material. Cadmium telluride is a promising electrochemical and photovoltaic material for thin film solar cells. It shows both p and n type conductivity. A nanocrystalline thin film of CdTe was deposited on nickel plate by chemical bath deposition method containing 0.01M Cadmium acetate and 0.02M tellurium dioxide. The structural, compositional, and optical analysis were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), scanning electron microscope (SEM), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and photoluminescence (PL).The diffraction peak observed at 2=23.59° with (111) plane indicate the crystalline phase of CdTe film. The average crystalline size is measured to be 7nm.Compositional analysis reveals the presence of both Cd and Te elements. The EDS spectroscopy shows the ratio of Cd and Te is1:2 in case of as deposited film. The photoluminescence peak is observed at 471nm.