An effect of N + ion bombardment on the properties of CdTe thin films

Abstract

E-beam evaporated CdTe thin films were processed with N + ion bombardment as in situ process. The N + ion glow was generated using simple Multipurpose Al probe instead of conventional plasma sources. The prepared films were identified as nano crystalline using XRD analysis. High N + ion fluence helped to grow (3 1 1) oriented CdTe thin films instead of (2 2 0) and (1 1 1). The observed results revealed the effect of N + ion fluence on the structural parameters like lattice parameter, d space value, crystalline size, dislocation density, micro strain etc. The observed optical band gap values lie in between 1.47 and 1.77 eV. The effect of N + ion bombardment on optical properties was also reported. Noticeable change in electrical and surface properties was also observed. The observed value shows the reproducibility as <1% and it is suggested that the N + ion plasma was effectively utilized to modify the structural, optical and surface properties as in situ.