Abstract:
The investigation of the optoelectronic behaviour of annealed and un-annealed electrodeposited
cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin films for material device applications was studied. Thin films of
CdTe semiconductor materials were grown on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) conducting glass
substrates using the technique of electrodeposition. Cadmium sulphate (CdSO4 +) at high
concentrations and telluride oxide (TeO2+) at low concentrations were used as precursor salts for
electrodeposition. Cathodic deposition potential of 1400 mV at duration of 30 to 120 minutes was
used in this work. The electrical conductivity type and optical characteristics of annealed and un
annealed CdTe thin films were carried out using photo-electrochemical (PEC) cell and UV-Vis
spectrophotometry techniques respectively. The deposited samples converted from n-type to p
type after heat treatment. The energy band gaps decreases as time increases for both un-annealed
and annealed samples. The optical transmission for both annealed and un-annealed CdTe samples
were about 60% for wavelengths longer than 850 nm. The results indicate that the material has
potential application in the fabrication of CdTe solar cells.
