| Autor: |
Alam AE; Materials and Engineering Research Institute, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, S1 1WB, UK. ashfaque.alam@alumni.dmu.ac.uk., Olusola OI; Department of Physics, School of Science, Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Ondo State, P. M. B. 704, Akure, Nigeria., Loch DAL; Materials and Engineering Research Institute, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, S1 1WB, UK., Shukla K; Materials and Engineering Research Institute, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, S1 1WB, UK., Cranton WM; Materials and Engineering Research Institute, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, S1 1WB, UK., Dharmadasa IM; Materials and Engineering Research Institute, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, S1 1WB, UK. |
| Abstrakt: |
Growth of polycrystalline CdMnTe ternary compound thin films has been carried out using cathodic electrodeposition technique at different cathodic potentials. The range of the cathodic potentials used in this work has been chosen according to the cyclic voltammogram results. The CdMnTe thin films were electroplated from electrolyte containing CdSO 4 , TeO 2 and MnSO 4 in an acidic aqueous medium. Glass/fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates have been used to electrodeposit the semiconductor layers. The structural, compositional, morphological, optical and electrical properties of the CdMnTe thin films were studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Sputtered neutral-mass spectroscopy (SNMS), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-Vis spectroscopy and Photo-electro-chemical (PEC) cell measurements respectively. The primarily grown as-deposited (AD) layers went through two different post-growth surface treatment conditions- heat-treated in air in the presence of CdCl 2 (CCT) and heat-treated in air in the presence of GaCl 3 (GCT). Results from the XRD indicated the polycrystalline nature of the electrodeposited films. The electroplated films have cubic crystal structures and the preferred orientation was found to be along the (111) plane of CdMnTe. Inclusion of Mn has been qualitatively observed using SNMS measurement. The optical energy bandgaps of the thin films were found to be varying between ~ 1.90 and ~ 2.20 eV. Though all the layers after post-treatment showed p-type electrical conduction, both p and n-type conductivity were obtained at different cathodic potentials for as-deposited materials. Comparison of the deposited layers to other electrodeposited ternary compounds has also been discussed. |
