Abstract
Polycrystalline Cadmium Oxide (CdO) thin films were preparedusing pulsed laser deposition onto glass substrates at roomtemperature with different thicknesses of (300, 350 and 400)nm,these films were irradiated with cesium-137(Cs-137) radiation. Thethickness and irradiation effects on structural and optical propertieswere studied. It is observed by XRD results that films arepolycrystalline before and after irradiation, with cubic structure andshow preferential growth along (111) and (200) directions. Thecrystallite sizes increases with increasing of thickness, and decreaseswith gamma radiation, which are found to be within the range(23.84-4.52) nm and (41.44-4.974)nm before and after irradiation forthickness 350nm and 400nm respectively, The dislocation density,microstrain and number of crystallites per unit surface area,decreases with increasing of thickness, while they increases withgamma radiation. From the atomic force microscope (AFM), thegrain size of CdO films decrease from 96.69nm before radiation to89.49 nm after gamma radiation and RMS roughness increases forthe irradiated sample from 4.26nm to 4.8nm, increase in the surfaceroughness is advantages as it increases the efficiency of the CdOsolar cells. The optical properties for thin CdOfilms with differentthickness before and after gamma irradiation have been determinedand reveals direct energy gap. It is decrease with the increase ofthickness, while it is increase after gamma irradiation. These films apromising candidate for the window layer in solar cells and otherpossible optoelectronic application.
Highlights
Transparent conducting oxides have been intensively investigated in recent years owing to their high optical transmittance and low resistivity
The aim of the present work is to study the effect of thickness and Gamma radiation on the structural, morphology and optical properties of cadmium oxide thin films growth by pulsed laser deposition (PLD)
The intensity of the ( 111), (200) and (220) peaks decreases, and all peaks are more broadened with increasing gamma radiation, as shown in Fig.1(a-f), and this is an agreement with other literatures [1,9]
Summary
Transparent conducting oxides have been intensively investigated in recent years owing to their high optical transmittance and low resistivity. CdO is a candidate material for solar cell applications due to their high quality electro-optical properties in the visible solar spectrum part [2]. Undoped CdO thin films have been prepared by different methods such as molecular-beam epitaxy, spray pyrolysis, radio frequency magnetron sputtering, pulse laser deposition, the sol–gel technique, etc.[4,5,6,7,8,9]. Highenergy radiations, such as γ-rays, change the physical properties of the materials they penetrate, and these changes are strongly dependent on the structure of the absorbed substances. The aim of the present work is to study the effect of thickness and Gamma radiation on the structural, morphology and optical properties of cadmium oxide thin films growth by PLD
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