Properties of CdTe films prepared by DC magnetron sputtering

Abstract

In order to create thin-film solar cells based on cadmium sulfide and telluride experimental studies of the process of cadmium telluride magnetron sputtering with direct current, and the impact of a magnetron sputtering mode on CdTe films crystalline structure were carried out. CdTe films for the base layers of thin film solar cells was obtained on flexible polyimide substrates by magnetron sputtering with direct current for the first time. It has found that increasing the magnetron discharge current up to 80 mA leads to increase in coherent scattering regions what is due to an increase in the thickness of the cadmium telluride films of the hexagonal modification having a columnar structure. A further increase in the discharge current leads to a decrease in the size of coherent scattering regions what caused by the thermodynamical output formation of low-angle boundaries. It has shown experimentally that the “chloride” processing of the obtained cadmium telluride layer leads to the transformation of the metastable hexagonal modification cadmium telluride in a stable cubic modification. At the same time, due to the eutectic recrystallization, increase in the sizes of coherent scattering regions by a decade and the microstrain level reduction in 1.5 times are observed.