EFFECT OF DEPOSITION METHODS ON PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF POLYCRYSTALLINE CdS

Cadmium sulfide is commonly used as the window material for thin film solar cells, and can be prepared by several techniques such as sputtering, spray pyrolysis, close spaced sublimation (CSS), thermal evaporation, solution growth methods, etc. In this study, CdS films were deposited by thermal evaporation, close spaced sublimation, and solution growth methods, respectively, and the effects of the methods on physical properties of polycrystalline CdS deposited on ITO/glass were investigated. Also, the effects of variously prepared CdS thin films on the physical properties of CdTe deposited on the CdS were investigated. The thickness of polycrystalline CdS films was maintained at $0.3\mu\textrm{m}$ except for the solution grown CdS when $0.2\mu\textrm{m}$ thick CdS was deposited. After the deposition, all the samples were annealed at $400^{\circ}C$ or $500^{\circ}C$ in H2 atmosphere. To investigate physical properties of the deposited and annealed CdS thin films, UV-VIS spectro-photometry, X-ray diffractometry (XRD), and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), and cross sectional transmission electron microscopy(XTEM) were used to analyze grain size, crystal structure, preferred orientation, optical properties, etc. The annealed CdS showed the bandedge transition at 510nm and the optical transmittance high than 80% for all of the variously deposited films. XRD results showed that CdS thin films variously deposited and annealed had the same hexagonal structures, however, showed different preferred orientations. CSS grown CdS had [103] preferred orientation, thermally evaporated CdS had [002], and CdS grown by the solution growth had no preferred orientation. The largest grain size was obtained for the CSS grown CdS while the least grain size was obtained for the solution grown CdS. Some of the physical properties of CdTe deposited on the CdS thin film such as grain size at the junction and grain orientation were affected by the physical properties of CdS thin films.