Comparison of cadmium sulfide thin films deposited on glass and polyethylene terephthalate substrates with thermal evaporation for solar cell applications

Abstract

Cadmium sulfide (CdS) thin films have been deposited onto glass and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates at room temperature with thermal evaporation in a vacuum of about 3 9 10 -5 Torr for use as window materials for solar cells. Effects of substrate types on the structural and optical characteristics of the films were studied. Sets of experiments were conducted to optimize the deposition of CdS films with appropriate deposition parameters. The deposited films were analyzed with atomic force microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray, X-ray diffraction and optical transmittance measurements to determine their structural and optical characteristics. X-ray diffraction patterns confirm the proper phase formation of the CdS. PET substrate exhibited the larger roughness than that for the glass because of large particles adsorbed on the PET substrate. The average transmittance of the films PET is about 71% and increases up to 81% for glass substrate.

Energy-band alignment of II-VI/Zn3P2 heterojunctions from x-ray photoemission spectroscopy

“…22,23 Vacuum evaporation of CdS from a compound source is a standard deposition technique for PV applications. 24,25 In this work, ZnSe was grown at 200 C at a BEP of $7 Â 10 À7 Torr. The ZnSe films were determined by high-resolution x-ray diffraction (HRXRD) to be single crystalline and well-oriented along the (001) direction.…”

Simulation study to find suitable dopants of CdS buffer layer for CZTS solar cell

“…Cadmium sulfide (CdS), a naturally grown n-type semiconductor is an important inorganic chemical compound in II-VI semiconductor family with excellent structural, optical and electrical properties [14][15][16]. The energy bandgap of CdS 2.42 eV allows maximum absorption of photons in the absorber layer [17]. For achieving enhanced performance of the CZTS solar cell, the thickness of the CdS buffer layer should be kept around 50 nm to reduce the absorption loss in the buffer layer [12].…”

Preparation and properties of CdS thin films deposited by chemical bath deposition

“…CdS is a semiconductor of the group II-VI compound, which has a direct optical band gap of 2.4 eV [2,3], used as a suitable window layer for CdTe based photovoltaic devices. Among various techniques which are used to prepare thin CdS, such as physical vapour deposition (PVD), close-spaced-sublimation (CSS) [4,5], screen printing (SP) [6] and MOCVD [7], chemical bath deposition (CBD) is the most widely used for its low cost and simpleness. Otherwise, it is easy to control the growth rate and can produce reproducible, uniform and adherent films [8][9][10].…”