Parametric study of chemical bath deposition and optical and structural characterization of patterned cadmium telluride thin films

This thesis describes the parametric study of chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique used to fabricate cadmium sulfide (CdS) thin films for cadmium sulfide/cadmium telluride (CdS/CdTe) Solar cells and photoluminescence of selective-area deposition of CdTe. Temperature, titration rates, pH levels, and spin effects where analyzed. Results were characterized using optical transmission measurements to observe effect on the bandgap of the window layer. Thickness profiling and spectral reflectance were conducted to observe its effects on the film growth. Optical microscopy was used to analyze the effect of homogeneous precipitates on CdS thin films. Overall results were used to develop a deposition recipe for CdS thin US films characterized by low pinhole density, optimization of deposition time and growth rate, and overall parameters for high fabrication yield. Effects of post-deposition annealing of US under different conditions were studied using atomic force microscope (AFM) to observe its effect on grain growth. A system to study the room-temperature photoluminescence (PL) of thin film CdTe was developed using a 633nm argon laser. (Abstract shortened by UMI.