Impact of the bath temperature on CdTe thin films prepared by electrochemical technique

Abstract

CdTe thin films were electrodeposited potentiostatically from an aqueous bath and studied the effect of bath temperatures on the as-grown samples. The samples were deposited at potential −0.7 V, obtained by cyclic voltammetry measurement for bath temperatures of 50 °C and 70 °C. The optical, structural, compositional, and morphological properties were studied and correlated. The pure polycrystalline cubic phase of CdTe samples was obtained, however, the sample grown at 50 °C revealed a high degree of crystallinity with a large grain size of ∼500 nm and stoichiometric Cd: Te (50:50) ratio suitable to produce the CdS/CdTe solar cell devices. Further, the properties revealed in the as-grown sample may be suitable to produce the flexible (plastic) CdTe-based solar cell without any heat-treatment procedure.