Indium Cadmium Research Articles

Characterization of dc reactive magnetron sputtered cadmium indate films

Thin films of cadmium indate were deposited onto the glass substrates by employing dc magnetron sputtering from cadmium–indium alloy target under various substrate temperatures in the range 373–673 K. The films were characterized by studying their structural and electrical properties. The films formed at substrate temperature <423 K were amorphous while those deposited at ≥423 K were polycrystalline with cubic spinel structure. The films prepared at a substrate temperature of 673 K exhibited low electrical resistivity of 3.5 × 10 −4 Ω cm and Hall mobility of 29 cm 2/V s.

Properties of spray-deposited CdIn2Se4 thin films for photovoltaic applications

Thin films of cadmium indium selenide have been deposited onto amorphous glass substrates using a simple and low-cost spray pyrolysis technique. The aqueous solutions containing precursors of Cd, In and Se have been used to obtain good quality deposits at optimized substrate temperature. The preparative parameters such as concentration, substrate temperature, etc. have been optimized by photoelectrochemical technique. The films have been characterized by techniques such as X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, EDAX and electrical characterization. The photoelectrochemical characterization shows that both short-circuit current (I sc ) and open-circuit voltage (V oc ) are at their optimum values at the optimized substrate temperature of 280C and concentration (0.0125 M). The XRD patterns show that the films are polycrystalline with cubic structure. The SEM studies reveal the compact morphology with large number of grains. Compositional analysis reveals that the material formed is nearly stoichiometric at the optimized preparative parameters. The electrical resistivity shows that the films are semiconducting and the resistivity is found to be minimum at optimized substrate temperature. The thermoelectric power (TEP) measurement reveals that the TEP is relatively maximum at same substrate temperature of 80°C. Photovoltaic output characteristics study reveals that the fill factor and efficiency; to be 69% and 3%, respectively.

Electrochemical deposition and characterization of cadmium indium telluride thin films for photovoltaic application

Abstract Cd–In–Te films were electro-deposited potentiostatically over SnO2:F coated glass substrates from aqueous acidic solutions containing CdSO4, InCl3 and TeO2 at 85 °C. Cyclic voltammetric studies were carried out to study the growth process and the potential range for ternary Cd–In–Te thin film deposition. Crystalline structure and surface morphological studies were carried out and correlated with the deposition potential. The deposited film showed cubic structure having a high degree of (1 1 1) orientation. Optical transmission studies showed a direct band structure and the band gap of the deposited film change with the deposition potential. A typical decrease from 1.2 to 1.1 eV in the optical band gap was observed on increasing the cathodic deposition potential from −0.5 to −0.54 V (SCE).

Transparent conductive cadmium indate thin films prepared by dc magnetron sputtering

Transparent conducting cadmium indate films were deposited at different oxygen partial pressures in the range from 1×10−4 to 5×10−3mbar onto glass substrates maintained at a temperature of 523K by dc magnetron sputtering from a cadmium–indium alloy target at a sputtering pressure of 4×10−2mbar. The films were characterised by studying the influence of oxygen partial pressure on the structural, electrical and optical properties. Cadmium indate films formed at an oxygen partial pressure of 5×10−4mbar were polycrystalline with cubic spinel structure, low electrical resistivity of 1.2×10−3Ωcm, high optical transmittance of 87% in the visible region, optical band gap of 3.23eV and a figure of merit of 1.8×10−3Ω−1.

Structural and optical properties of spray-deposited CdIn2Se4 thin films

The thin films of cadmium indium selenide (CdIn2Se4) have been deposited onto amorphous glass substrates using simple and low cost spray pyrolysis technique. The aqueous solutions containing precursors of Cd, In and Se have been used to obtain good quality deposits at different substrate temperatures. The preparative parameters, such as substrate temperature and concentration of precursor solution have been optimized and are found to be 280°C and 0.0125M, respectively. The films have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical absorption and energy dispersive analysis by X-rays (EDAX) techniques. The spray-deposited CdIn2Se4 films are polycrystalline with cubic crystal structure. The optical absorption studies reveal that the transition is direct with band gap energy Eg=1.92eV. The EDAX studies reveal that the films obtained at substrate temperature 280°C are nearly stoichiometric.

ChemInform Abstract: Bulk Phase Relations, Conductivity, and Transparency in Novel Bixbyite Transparent Conducting Oxide Solution in the Cadmium—Indium—Tin Oxide System.

AbstractChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was extracted from about 100 leading journals. To access a ChemInform Abstract of an article which was published elsewhere, please select a “Full Text” option. The original article is trackable via the “References” option.

Thermodynamic modelling of the C–U and B–U binary systems

The thermodynamic modelling of the carbon–uranium (C–U) and boron–uranium (B–U) binary systems is being performed in the framework of the development of a thermodynamic database for nuclear materials, for increasing the basic knowledge of key phenomena which may occur in the event of a severe accident in a nuclear power plant. Applications are foreseen in the nuclear safety field to the physico-chemical interaction modelling, on the one hand the in-vessel core degradation producing the corium (fuel, zircaloy, steel, control rods) and on the other hand the ex-vessel molten corium–concrete interaction (MCCI). The key O–U–Zr ternary system, previously modelled, allows us to describe the first interaction of the fuel with zircaloy cladding. Then, the three binary systems Fe–U, Cr–U and Ni–U were modelled as a preliminary work for modelling the O–U–Zr–Fe–Cr–Ni multicomponent system, allowing us to introduce the steel components in the corium. In the existing database (TDBCR, thermodynamic data base for corium), Ag and In were introduced for modelling AIC (silver–indium–cadmium) control rods which are used in French pressurized water reactors (PWR). Elsewhere, B 4C is also used for control rods. That is why it was agreed to extend in the next years the database with two new components, B and C. Such a work needs the thermodynamic modelling of all the binary and pseudo-binary sub-systems resulting from the combination of B, B 2O 3 and C with the major components of TDBCR, O–U–Zr–Fe–Cr–Ni–Ag–In–Ba–La–Ru–Sr–Al–Ca–Mg–Si + Ar–H. The critical assessment of the very numerous experimental information available for the C–U and B–U binary systems was performed by using a classical optimization procedure and the Scientific Group Thermodata Europe (SGTE). New optimized Gibbs energy parameters are given, and comparisons between calculated and experimental equilibrium phase diagrams or thermodynamic properties are presented. The self-consistency obtained is quite satisfactory.

Ethanol-sensing characteristics of pure and Pt-activated CdIn 2O 4 films prepared by r.f. reactive sputtering

Cadmium indium oxide (CdIn 2O 4, CIO) thin films were prepared by r.f. reactive sputtering from a Cd–In alloy target under an Ar–O 2 atmosphere in order to fabricate gas-sensing devices where Corning CG-7059 glass was used as a substrate. An ultrathin, discontinuous layer of Pt was then sputtered onto the film surface, which improved the sensor's sensibility to the ethanol gas. The temperature dependence of sensitivity to ethanol gas for both pure and Pt-activated CIO films has been investigated.

The behaviour of control rod absorber under irradiation

Increase of rod diameters and cracking of PWR control rod claddings may occur in operation. In order to understand the contribution of the absorber properties to this damage, EDF and FRAMATOME launched a programme of examinations concerning the silver–indium–cadmium alloy constituting the absorber bars. Density measurements and microstructural investigations such as micrography, microanalysis were carried out in the EDF Hot Laboratory, X-ray diffraction was performed by CEA. The results show that transmutations induce chemical modifications inside the fcc alloy and, further, formation of an hcp phase similar to the ζ phase of the silver alloys. The chemical and crystallographic changes account for the major part of the absorber swelling.

Update: a protein microbolometer for focal plane arrays

The current infrared microbolometer technology using vanadium oxide material is not quite as sensitive as a cooled platinum silicide or cooled mercury cadmium telluride or indium antimonide array. The performance factor of the present IR bolometer needs to be improved by at least an order of magnitude to make a bolometric IR device comparable to the cooled detector arrays. I recently reported [1] that thin films of globular proteins such as cytochrome c exhibit a high temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) value of about 10% as compared with a value of 2.0 to 2.5% normally observed in VOx films. The measurements that were initially reported were taken two weeks after the thin films had been prepared. The measurement of the TCR values presented in this report were taken within three days of the films being prepared. These TCR values are very high, approximately 35% for temperatures between 25 and 60°C, and they have a sheet resistance around 1 to 2 Ω/cm2 with a current of 1 mA. The values of TCR were very uniform over the wafer surface, but the values varied slightly from wafer to wafer. It appears that a cytochrome c monolayer on metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) electronics could generate miniaturized, uncooled IR detector arrays that would be suitable for military and commercial applications that require very high performance and low-power drain. With these high TCR values, biological uncooled devices will have the potential for long-range thermal imaging applications comparable to cooled detectors.I have also examined the sheet resistance of the protein layer with an increase in the bias current near ambient temperature. I found that the sheet resistance of cytochrome c rapidly goes towards the negative values as the bias current is increased. On the other hand, TCR characteristics remained unchanged with an increase in bias current. This is a very interesting phenomenon that has never been reported in biomolecules. I am making further explorations into the electrical properties of many proteins for possible device applications.

Author index

The international Phébus Fission Product Programme investigated key phenomena occurring in light water reactor core meltdown accidents in a series of five in-pile experiments. Four of these tests focused on the degradation of fuel rod bundles, containing a central control rod, and on the resulting release of fission products, structural materials and actinides from the fuel rod bundle, their transport in the reactor coolant system (RCS) and their subsequent behaviour in the containment vessel. Various steam contents were used in the RCS, from highly oxidising conditions (in FPT0 and FPT1) to more reducing ones (in FPT2 and FPT3).The “early degradation phase” took place at the beginning of the Phébus driver core and fuel bundle heat-up phase, with a quasi-intact fuel bundle geometry. During this phase, the degradation of the control rod and the oxidation runaway due to the fast oxidation of the Zircaloy claddings of the fuel rods, were two major events which took place.The oxidation runaway locally increased the temperatures much above the temperatures resulting from the Phébus driver core heat transfer to the bundle and yielded a large hydrogen release, which amounted to 70–80% of the whole hydrogen production during the tests. The maximum hydrogen flow rates increased with increasing steam flow rates injected at the fuel bundle inlet.The failure mechanisms of silver–indium–cadmium (used in three tests) and boron carbide (used in one test) control rods involve eutectic interactions amongst the components of these control rods. Mechanical deformations of the control rod stainless steel cladding against the Zircaloy control rod guide tube are the main presumed mechanisms for the beginning of these eutectic formations. However, different post-failure scenarios can be postulated for the effect of control rod degradation on fuel bundle degradation for both types of control rods. The exothermic oxidation of the exposed boron carbide pellets led to the release of carbonaceous species (CO, CO2) as well as of additional hydrogen, but no significant methane release could be detected above the limits of detection.Overall, the results confirmed existing knowledge concerning early phase degradation phenomenology found in previous integral experiments such as CORA and QUENCH (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) and Phébus SFD (IRSN Cadarache), and formed a sound basis for analysis of the late phase degradation subsequently observed. Quantitative analysis of boron carbide control rod degradation in FPT3 pointed to a need for improved modelling of chemical reactions involving this material, particularly its oxidation in steam; this has been studied in the BECARRE experiments conducted by IRSN in the International Source Term Programme, leading to better quantitative understanding and improved modelling in codes such as the European reference severe accident analysis code ASTEC.

The hydrostatic pressure derivatives of the elastic constants of indium and an indium cadmium alloy

The hydrostatic pressure derivatives of the elastic stiffness constants of indium and indium-3.4 at.% cadmium alloy single crystals have been obtained from pulse echo overlap measurements of the dependence of ultrasonic wave velocities upon pressure. The softest zone centre acoustic phonon mode in indium is a shear mode propagating k along the [101] direction rather than that ( k[110], e[11̄0]) which drives the ferroelastic phase transition in the indium-cadmium alloys. The derivative δ(( C 11 – C 12)/2)/δ P is positive, accounting for the stability of the fct structure of indium under high pressure. Using the quasiharmonic, anisotropic continuum model the acoustic mode Grüneisen parameters have been calculated and are discussed in terms of mode softening. The high temperature limiting value $ ̄ γ H (= 2.56) of the mean acoustic mode Grüneisen parameter is found to be close to the thermodynamic Grüneisen parameter γ th (=2.5).

ChemInform Abstract: IONIZED IMPURITY SCATTERING IN CADMIUM TELLURIDE DOPED WITH CHLORINE AND INDIUM

Chemischer InformationsdienstVolume 15, Issue 50 Physical Inorganic Chemistry ChemInform Abstract: IONIZED IMPURITY SCATTERING IN CADMIUM TELLURIDE DOPED WITH CHLORINE AND INDIUM M. NAGABHOOSHANAM, M. NAGABHOOSHANAMSearch for more papers by this authorS. R. RAO, S. R. RAOSearch for more papers by this authorV. H. BABU, V. H. BABUSearch for more papers by this author M. NAGABHOOSHANAM, M. NAGABHOOSHANAMSearch for more papers by this authorS. R. RAO, S. R. RAOSearch for more papers by this authorV. H. BABU, V. H. BABUSearch for more papers by this author First published: December 11, 1984 https://doi.org/10.1002/chin.198450011Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume15, Issue50December 11, 1984 RelatedInformation

Radiative recombination in CdIn2Se4: Photoluminescence spectra

l I III IV The photoluminescence of many ternary semiconductors of the A B 2 X 4 family has been studied by different authors in the last two decades (~); some interesting properties have been put in evidence, but a systematic analysis and a comparison of the results together with an interpretation of the recombination process in ternary semiconductors are still lacking. More recent works on three compounds of the family (ZnIn2S 4 (~), ZnIn~Se 4 (3) and and CdIn2S 4 (a)) seem to suggest that a unique mechanism can explain the recombinat ion process. In the light of a systematic study of all the compounds of the family, this letter deals with the luminescence of the relatively unknown cadmium indium selenide (CdIn2S%). Cadmium indium selenide is a n-type semiconductor with defect chalcopyrite structure (5); its main transport properties have been measured by KOVAL et al. (6), while BALDBR~SCHI and coworkers have calculated the energy band structure of this semiconductor; in particular, they have shown that some energy levels are very sensltive to the position of the atoms in the cell, i .e . to the internal distortion (7). The optical and photoelectrical properties have been studied in detail by TRYKOZKO (s), who has shown that the indirect and the direct gaps of CdIn~S% at liquid-nitrogen temperature are located at 1.60 eV and 1.84 eV, respectively. To the best of our knowledge there is only one published paper on the photoluminescenee of CdIn2Se a,

The relative magnitude of the diffusion constants of cadmium vacancies and indium–cadmium vacancy pairs in CdS and CdTe

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Electrical properties of alloys Bi l−2Sb x= 0 − 20 alloyed by cadmium indium and tin : DP Belotsky et al, Neorg Mater, 8, June 1972, 1166–1168 ( in Russian)

Electrical properties of alloys Bi l−2Sb x= 0 − 20 alloyed by cadmium indium and tin : DP Belotsky et al, Neorg Mater, 8, June 1972, 1166–1168 ( in Russian)

Silver—Indium—Cadmium, a Control Rod Material for Pressurized Water Reactors

Ni plating of Ag-In-Cd control rod alloys to a thickness of 0.005 to 0.05 in. is found to yield a durable coating that does not undercut. The use of Ag-In-Cd control rods in the Yankee power reactor is reviewed, with attention to their endurance, their lifetime with respect to core lifetime, their worth as a function of irradiation dose, their surface absorption as a function of reactor energy density, and the dependence of reactivity on the total control rod surface area/reactor volume ratio. (T.F.H.)

The solubility of krypton in liquid cadmium and indium

Abstract In a previous paper (Johnson and Shuttleworth 1959) experimental measurements of the solubility of krypton in the tetravalent liquid metals lead and tin were found to agree quite well with values estimated from the surface energies of the liquid metals. This work has now been extended to divalent cadmium and trivalent indium, and the estimated solubilities are in reasonable agreement with the experimental results.