Influence of growth time on the properties of CdTe thin films grown by electrodeposition using acetate precursor for solar energy application

Abstract

Cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin films were deposited using a two–electrode electrodeposition (ED) configuration from an aqueous acidic solution. The electrolyte solution contains 1 M of cadmium acetate dihydrate (Cd (CH3OO) 2.2H2O) as cadmium precursor and 1 ml of tellurium dioxide (TeO2) as tellurium precursor. The thin films were grown for different deposition times of 60, 120, 180, 240, and 300 min to investigate the effect of the deposition period on the structural, optical, electrical, surface morphology, elemental composition, and surface roughness properties of the CdTe thin films in both as–deposited and heat–treated forms. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis indicates that the CdTe thin films have polycrystalline cubic zinc blend, orthorhombic and hexagonal structures. The result confirmed that the cubic phase is dominant and the peak for preferred orientation is along the (111) plane. Ultraviolet-visible (UV–vis) spectrophotometry study shows that the band gap of the as-deposited thin films varies from (1.41–1.45) eV, and after heat treatment, the band gap decreased to (1.39–1.42) eV. Photoelectrochemical cell (PEC) measurements show that CdTe thin films haven-type conductivity in both as–deposited and annealed forms. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis shows that the surface morphology of CdTe thin films changed as the deposition period increases. After heat treatment, increase in grain size was observed. Energy–dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis shows that the percentage composition of as–deposited and heat-treated CdTe thin films varied with deposition time. After post–deposition treatment (PDT), the concentration of Te decreased, while that of Cd increased due to recrystallization during annealing. For the film deposited for 120 min, stoichiometric composition of CdTe was observed after heat treatment. Scanning probe microscopy (SPM) measurements revealed that the average surface roughness of the thin films varied with deposition time. The maximum average surface roughness was recorded when the film was deposited for 120 min. These results show that the prepared CdTe thin films have potential application as absorber layers in thin film solar cells.