Hydrophilic CdSe thin films by low cost spray pyrolysis technique and annealing effects

Abstract

Cadmium selenide (CdSe) thin films were deposited on glass substrates at 200°C by homemade chemical spray pyrolysis technique. The as-deposited films were annealed in air atmosphere for 3 hrs, at two different temperatures (350 and 450°C). The as-deposited film has been observed to possess uniform surface with crystalline sphalerite cubic structure and optical band gap of Eg = 2.4 eV. It is worth noting that after annealing, metastable cubic sphalerite phase transforms into stable well crystalline hexagonal wurtzite phase. The optical band gap was found to decrease from 2.4 eV to 1.75 eV. The average surface roughness is 1.5 nm for the as-deposited film which rises to 4.2 nm after annealing the film in air atmosphere. The contact angle was found to vary from 94° ± 1° to 81° ± 1° with annealing temperature. In addition, from Wenzel’s relation it is concluded that CdSe thin film is hydrophilic in nature.