Tunable optoelectronic properties of CBD-CdS thin films via bath temperature alterations

The tunability of the band-gap value and electron affinity of the n-CdS by adjusting the growth parameters is very important as it paves the way to improve the efficiency of CdS-based solar cells by adjusting the band lineup with other p-type semiconductors. In this respect, polycrystalline n-CdS thin films were grown on FTO glass substrates at different bath temperatures (40–80 °C) by the chemical bath deposition technique. The structural, morphological and optoelectronic properties of CdS thin films were studied using x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, UV-Vis spectrometry, profilometry, atomic force microscopy, photoelectrochemical and Mott–Schottky measurements. Absorption measurements reveal that an energy-gap value of n-CdS can be adjusted from 2.27 to 2.57 eV and Mott–Schottky measurements indicate that the flat-band potential is increased from −699 to −835 V with respect to a Ag/AgCl electrode by decreasing the deposition bath temperature from 60 to 40 °C. This tunability of optoelectronic properties of n-CdS is very useful for applications in thin film solar cells and other devices.