Optical and structural properties of CdS thin films prepared using electro-deposition technique

Abstract

Cadmium Sulfide (CdS) thin films were electrodeposited successfully on to Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) coated glass substrates from an aqueous solution of pH 1.4 containing 0.3M CdCl2 and 0.03M Na2S2O3 or Thiourea with the aim of using in CdS/CdTe solar cells. Properties of CdS thin films prepared at different deposition voltages, deposition time periods, deposition temperatures and annealing temperatures were investigated using the current-voltage (I-V) plots. It was found that good quality CdS layers were formed under the deposition conditions of -1.13V for a period of 45 minutes in a solution of temperature at 46 oC. The performance of the CdS layers was improved significantly after annealing the samples at 400 oC for a period of 20 min. The properties of CdS thin films prepared by two and three electrode configurations and using two different electrolytes were compared using the current-voltage plots. It was found that there is a significant improvement of photocurrent of the samples prepared with two electrodes in Thiourea as the S source in comparison with the samples prepared with Na2S2O3. The analysis of XRD spectra showed the hexagonal crystal structure of CdS films confirming the quality of the films prepared by this method. In addition, absorption spectra showed band gap value of 2.42 eV proving that the samples were of good quality. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) analysis showed that the roughness values of CdS samples were in the range of 10-15 nm. Film thicknesses of the samples were in the range of 175-225 nm according to the optical profilometric data. Keywords. Cadmium sulfide, electrodeposition, electrolyte, two-electrode, photocurrent.