Electrochemical deposition of p-CdTe nanoparticle thin films for solar cell applications

In present work, p-type CdTe nanostructure thin films successfully synthesized on transparent conductive fluorine-doped SnO2-coated (FTO) substrate from acidic bath using three-electrode electrodeposition technique. Influence of applied potential and electrodeposition time on the structural, morphology and opto-electrical properties of the deposited films has been systematically investigated. Raman spectroscopy, low angle XRD, and HR-TEM analysis suggest that electrodeposited thin films have zinc blende cubic crystal structure. At optimized deposition conditions, we have found that CdTe thin films have direct band gap in the range 1.42–1.53 eV with a blue shift in absorption edge which may caused by quantum confinement effects in the CdTe thin films. The Hot probe experiment and Hall coefficient (RH) values confirmed the p-type semiconducting behavior of CdTe thin films. The ease of deposition of p-type CdTe nanostructure with different morphologies at room temperature provides a new insight for potential applications in hetero-junction solar cells technology.