STRUCTURAL AND OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF NANOCRYSTALLINE CuxCd1-xS THIN FILMS DEPOSITED BY CHEMICAL BATH DEPOSITION TECHNIQUE

Abstract

Due to the importance of this field and its applications, especially in the field of solar cells, studies are still ongoing to study the physical properties of nanostructure materials. Using chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique, nanocrystalline copper-cadmium-sulfide (CuxCd1-xS) thin films were synthesized from a mixture of copper chloride, cadmium chloride and thiourea. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern confirms that the deposited thin films are polycrystalline in nature with hexagonal phase. The intensity decreases as Cu2+ content in the solution increase. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to investigate surface morphology characterization, which showed that the films have a nanocrystalline structure in the range of 5–11 nm and that surface morphology is affected by Cu2+ content in the bath solution. The optical properties were investigated using UV VIS spectrophotometer in the range of 300-1100 nm. Optical analysis showed that band gap increases from 3.77 to 3.96 eV as Cu2+ content increase in chemical bath solution from x= 0.1 to x= 0.5