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Influence of substrate heating on structural, optical and electrical properties of CdS thin film deposited from precursor solutions

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Abstract

In this work CdS thin films were deposited from precursor solution at various substrate temperatures for the application in solar cell photovoltaics. Cadmium acetate ((CH3COO)2Cd.2H2O), thiourea (CH4N2S) and methanol (CH3OH) were used for the very simple and efficient deposition process. The structural characteristics of the deposited CdS thin films were studied by using X-ray diffractrometry, atomic force microscopy and EDAX. The results confirm a primitive type hexagonal structure of the deposited films with an increase in crystallinity as the substrate temperature increases. The optical characteristics (transmittance and band gap) were analyzed using UV–Vis spectrophotometer in the range of 300–900 nm. Transmittance and band gap increases with the increase in substrate temperature. Hall Effect analysis has been done to investigate electrical characteristics (carrier concentration, mobility and conductivity). Results show that substrate temperature has a significant role on structural, optical and electrical characteristics of the deposited CdS thin films which can alter the performance of solar cells.

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Acknowledgements

The authors like to acknowledge DST and MNRE for financial support through Grant # DST/TMD/CERI/C167 (G) and # 31/13/2013-14/PVSE-R&D respectively.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre of Excellence for Green Energy and Sensor Systems, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, Howrah, India

    Arindam Basak & Anup Mondal

  2. Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, Howrah, India

    Anup Mondal

  3. Thin Film Photovoltaics Lab, School of Electronics Engineering, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, India

    Arindam Basak, Udai P. Singh & Saswat Soumya Mishra

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  1. Arindam Basak
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  2. Udai P. Singh
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  4. Anup Mondal
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Correspondence to Udai P. Singh.

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Basak, A., Singh, U.P., Mishra, S.S. et al. Influence of substrate heating on structural, optical and electrical properties of CdS thin film deposited from precursor solutions. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 28, 6560–6565 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-017-6345-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-017-6345-4

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