Indium oxide thin films have been prepared by thermal oxidation of vacuum-deposited indium thin films in air in an open furnace at about 600 K. These indium oxide thin films prepared by thermal oxidation have been examined for optical transparency by measuring their optical absorbance as a function of wavelength. From the optical absorption data, optical band gap and the nature of the forbidden energy gap in the indium oxide thin films have been determined. Electrical conductivity measurements have also been carried out on the above oxide films as a function of temperature during heating and cooling cycles in vacuum. It is found that after the first heating, electrical conductivity increases to a significant extent due to removal of point defect clusters due to annealing which contribute to both carrier generation and scattering. From the thermoelectric power measurements carried out, it has been concluded that electrons are the majority carriers in these indium oxide thin films.

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Polycrystalline thin films of n-CdSe0.6Te0.4 were deposited in a vacuum of 5×10−5 Torr by thermal flash evaporation with a deposition rate of 20±1 Å/s on indium oxide coated glass plates [σ=1.25×104 (Ω cm)−1] held at 200 °C. Application of surface treatment techniques such as annealing and photoelectrochemical etching on the films revealed that the films exhibit photoelectrochemical behavior with increased conversion efficiency and stability after treatment. Gärtner’s model [Phys. Rev. 116, 84 (1954)] was used in the calculation of the solid state parameters of the films like the carrier concentration ND and minority carrier diffusion length Lp for different surface treatments. Chemical etching improves the efficiency and fill factor from 1.53% and 40% to 2.72% and 50% respectively, whereas photoelectrochemical etching improves further the efficiency to 3.83% and fill factor to 59% and the stability of the photoelectrode in the polysulphide electrolyte.