Growth, structural and optical properties of Cd1-xZnxS alloy thin films grown by solution growth technique (SGT)

Solution growth technique (SGT) has been used for the growth of alloy Cd1-xZnxS thin films. Various growth parameters such as pH, deposition time, and concentration of ions, composition and temperature have been optimized for development of device grade alloy thin films. In order to achieve uniformity of the thin film on glass substrate, triethanolamine (TEA) has been added in the deposition solution. The surface morphology, compositional ratio and structural properties have been studied by SEM, energy dispersive analysis of X-ray technique (EDAX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques, respectively. It has been observed that films have hexagonal structure with lattice parameters a = 0.4042 nm and c = 0.6588 nm at the composition x = 0.5. The grain size of all composition 'x' measured from SEM is varied in between 112 and 182 nm. The optical transmittance spectra have been recorded in the range 350-1000 nm. The optical band gap increases from 2.34 to 3.43 eV as composition varies from x = 0.0 to 1.0. These parameters are useful for the optoelectronic devices applications. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.