Study of Physical Properties of CdZnS Ternary Thin Films Prepared by Chemical Bath Deposition
Fadheela Hussen Oleiwe
Abstract

In this work, a series of Cd1-xZnxS 0.05 ≤ x ≤ 0.7 ternary thin films were prepared on glass substrates using chemical bath deposition (CBD ) method. An attempt was made to modify the band gap of CdS (2.4 eV) by preparing a mixed lattice with a high band gap material, ZnS (3.7 eV), giving a new set of materials. Cadmium sulphate, Zinc sulphate, and thiourea are used as the basic source materials in the deposition bath. Many growth parameters have been considered in this study to specify the optimum condition, namely (temperature of solution, pH, and deposition time) for properties Cd0.5Zn0.5S thin film. Structural, optical and electrical properties of Cd1-xZnxS thin films are investigated and analyzed extensively with respect to growth conditions. The Cd1-xZnxS films are annealed in air at temperatures (300) ºC at constant time of ( 60 min). Structure and surface morphology of Cd1-xZnxS thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Atomic Force microscope (AFM), Optical Microscopic, and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) Measurements. The XRD indicates that all the grown films show only one diffraction peak located at (2θ= 26.7°) with hexagonal structure in predominant (002). The average grain size changes from (9.3nm to 4.48nm) with the increase in Zn- content (x = 0 to 0.65). It was found that as the Zn- content increases, the peak intensity decreases and for (x ≥ 0.7) the films have amorphous character. The values of lattice constant ‘a’ and ‘ c’ have been observed to vary with composition from (5.75 nm to 4.68 nm) and (6.66 nm to 6.62 nm), respectively, with the increase in Zn- content ( x = 0 - 0.65) . The AFM studies showed that the smooth surface texture was observed in the deposited Cd1-xZnxS films with (x= 0.3) , the surface roughness of the Cd1-xZnxS thin films is about ( 2.66nm to 9.47nm) and the root mean square (RMS) is about ( 3.41nm to 11.9nm) with increase in Zn- content (x = 0.3 to 0.6) .The optical microscopic measurement observes that films surface become increasingly coarse at increasing the Zn- concentration. The SEM exhibits that grains in the film are distributed to cover the surface of the substrate completely, the grains become small in diameters with increasing Zn-contents. The optical properties of Cd1-xZnxS thin films were studied by the transmittance, absorption coefficient and energy gap for deposition conditions (80ºC temperature pH= 10 and time 3h). The transmittance is measured in the range from ( 300 nm to 900 nm) for all the films, in the visible wavelength region, the average transmittance greater than (80 %) at Zn-content (x = 0 to 0.7). The Cd1-xZnxS thin films have high optical absorption coefficients where the value reaches at (1.2×105 cm-1). The energy band gap ( Eg) values of Cd1-xZnxS thin films are ( 2.4 eV to 3.4 eV) corresponding to the Zn-content ( x = 0 to 0.7) respectively. In other word, the optical band gap of Cd1-xZnxS thin films become wider as Zn-content increases. All the Cd1-xZnxS films show that the resistivity varied in the range ( 0.45× 103 Ω.cm to 5.9× 103 Ω.cm) corresponding to the Zn-content (x = 0 to 0.7), respectively. Also the activation energies Ea1 (0.124 eV to 0.833 eV) and Ea2 (0.063 eV to 0.277 eV) varied with the increasing Zn-content (x) in the films (x = 0 to 0.7). Hall measurements indicate that the Cd1-xZnxS thin films have same conduction type (n-type) conductivity. The carrier concentration and mobility values for Cd1-xZnxS thin films vary with zinc content , furthermore their values are (5.201× 10¹² cm-3- 1.263× 1012cm-3) and (140.5 5 cm2V-1S-1 - 22.435 cm2V-1S-1 ) respectively.