Growth of Thick Epitaxial CdTe Films by Close Space Sublimation

Abstract

This paper reports on a detailed study of the development of the close space sublimation method, which has been widely used in the preparation of polycrystalline CdTe/CdS solar cells, as an epitaxial method for the growth of thick CdTe single crystal films over 200 μm on GaAs and Ge substrates for high-energy radiation detectors. The resulting microscopic growth phenomena in the process are also discussed in this paper. High-quality single crystalline CdTe thick films were prepared with x-ray rocking curves full width at half maximum (FWHM) values, which were ∼100 arcsec on Ge substrates and 300 arcsec on GaAs substrates. The quality of thick films on Ge(100) showed a substantial improvement with nucleation in a Te-rich growth environment. No Te inclusions in the CdTe films grown on GaAs(211)B and Ge(100) were observed with IR transmission imaging. Photoluminescence of CdTe/Ge shows a large reduction in the 1.44 eV defect energy bands compared with films grown on GaAs substrates. The film resistivity is on the order of 10 10 Ω cm, and the film displayed some sensitivity to alpha particles.