Morphology and Composition of Lead-Cadmium Sulfide Photo-Sensitive Films

Abstract

CdxPb1-xS films with a thickness of 620 and 680 nm were prepared by chemical precipitation from a reaction mixture containing lead salt, thiourea, alkali and cadmium acetate. The concentration of cadmium acetate was 0.01 and 0.1 mol/l. Electron-microscopic studies showed a fundamental difference in the morphology of the CdxPb1-xS thin films with a 10-fold difference in the concentration of cadmium acetate in the reaction bath. The results of energy dispersive analysis indicate the nonstoichiometry of the synthesized films on sulfur. Auger spectrometry revealed a high content of oxygen in the surface layer of the thin film coating CdxPb1-xS (up to 10 and 40 at. %). In the sample obtained from the reaction bath containing 0.01 mol / l of cadmium acetate, after ion etching at a depth of more than 30 nm, no oxygen was detected. In a sample prepared with a cadmium acetate content of up to 0.1 mol/l, the oxygen content does not exceed 3 at. %