Effect of film thickness on microstructure parameters and optical constants of CdTe thin films

Different thickness of cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin films was deposited onto glass substrates by the thermal evaporation technique. Their structural characteristics were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The XRD experiments showed that the films are polycrystalline and have a zinc-blende (cubic) structure. The microstructure parameters, crystallite size and microstrain were calculated. It is observed that the crystallite size increases and microstrain decreases with the increase in the film thickness. The fundamental optical parameters like band gap and extinction coefficient are calculated in the strong absorption region of transmittance and reflectance spectrum. The possible optical transition in these films is found to be allowed direct transition with energy gap increase from 1.481 to 1.533 eV with the increase in the film thickness. It was found that the optical band gap increases with the increase in thickness. The refractive indices have been evaluated in transparent region in terms of envelope method, which has been suggested by Swanepoul in the transparent region. The refractive index can be extrapolated by Cauchy dispersion relationship over the whole spectral range, which extended from 400 to 2500 nm. It is observed that the refractive index, n increases on increasing the film thickness up to 671 nm and then the variation of n with higher thickness lie within the experimental errors. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.