Cadmium Chalcogenide Thin Films: Deposition by Chemical Bath and their Characteristic Properties

ABSTRACT Cadmium chalcogenide thin films though extensively studied by depositing them by different methods by various researchers; but there is a little information available on these chalcogenides synthesized by a common method and under same deposition conditions. Therefore, the attempts were made to synthesize these materials by chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique by keeping the deposition conditions constant, so that it will be better to study their properties comparatively. The growth mechanism, chemical kinetics and thin film properties of these as-deposited films were studied with reference to their preparative parameters such as basic ingredients, molarities, pH of the reaction mixtures and deposition conditions such as time and temperature of depositions and speed of mechanical churning etc. The spectro-photometric studies revealed that these as-deposited thin film composites have high absorption coefficients and direct mode of transitions. These as-deposited samples were characterized to understand the electrical conduction mechanism involved in these films at ambient and higher temperatures. The thermo-electric power measurements were also made to know the type of conduction mechanisms involved therein. Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques were employed to analyze these samples for their thin film properties.