Influence of Cu doping on physical and photo-electrochemical properties of CdS thin films prepared by RF magnetron sputtering.

In this paper, Cu doped CdS thin films were prepared on FTO substrates by RF magnetron sputtering and then were annealed at 350 °C–425 °C in vacuum for 20 min. The influences of different Cu-doped concentrations (Cu 4.1, 5.4, 7.3, 9.1 at%) on morphological, structural, optical properties and photo-electrochemical (PEC) properties of CdS thin films were investigated. The PEC characterizations indicated that the photocurrent densities of CdS:Cu (Cu 4.1, 5.4, 7.3, 9.1 at%) thin films increased from 0.94, 1.28,1.86,1.91 mA cm−2 to 1.33, 1.89, 2.40, 3.16 mA cm−2 after annealing. And the PEC properties of CdS:Cu thin films annealed at different temperatures were also studied. FTO/annealed CdS:Cu/Pt photoanode were fabricated to enhance the photocurrent activity and the photocurrent density of FTO/annealed CdS:Cu/5 nm Pt is 1.5 times larger than that of the CdS:Cu electrode without Pt cocatalyst. • CdS:Cu thin films were firstly prepared by magnetron sputtering method. • PEC properties of n type CdS:Cu thin films were firstly studied. • FTO/CdS:Cu/Pt improved PEC performances of CdS:Cu thin films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]