High transmittance cadmium oxysulfide Cd(S,O) buffer layer grown by triton X-100 mediated chemical bath deposition for thin-film heterojunction solar cells

Abstract

Polycrystalline 100–190 nm Cd(S,O) n-type semiconductor thin films of high transparency in the visible range are deposited by a surfactant Triton X-100 mediated chemical bath deposition process. The crystalline structure of the films revealed by X-ray diffraction data shows a cubic-CdO phase signified by (111) and (200) planes alongside the (002), (220), and (110) planes from hexagonal-CdS. The invariance of the 2θ position of the (002) CdS diffraction is interpreted in terms of the growth of the composite film essentially by the formation of a dilute interstitial alloy of CdO and CdS. This is confirmed by Raman spectra which, besides the CdS 1LO and 2LO modes at 300 and 600 cm−1, also show Raman lines from CdO at 1098 cm−1 and 952 cm−1 assigned as overtone of 2LO phonon modes and 556 cm−1 due to band crossing between LO and TO modes of CdO. Optical spectra of Cd(S,O) films show a median transmittance of >85% compared to ∼70% for CdS films in the 550–1000 nm wavelength range. The Cd(S,O) films show optical bandgap varying from 2.34 to 2.26 eV with increasing CdO fraction but retain high sub-bandgap transmission and sharp band edge threshold. The Cd(S,O) films thus offer an alternative to the CdS buffer layer in the heterojunction solar cells, which has major shortcoming of poor stability and high sub-bandgap absorption. The photoluminescence spectra of Cd(S,O) films show three green bands, of which one is the near band edge transition at 511.5 nm, the same as in CdS, the second band at 526.0 nm that red shifted from the CdS position is due to shallow donor-acceptor defects arising from structural change due to CdO, and the third band at 543.6 nm (2.28 eV) originates from direct band transition in CdO. The growth mechanism of Cd(S,O) films is described, which invokes that the Triton X-100 molecule modifies the microenvironment around adsorbed [Cd(NH3)4]2+ species, thereby inducing two concurrent reactions, one with SH− species that cause CdS formation and the other controlled Cd(OH)2 deprotonation reaction that forms CdO.