Studies on CdTe films deposited by pulsed laser deposition technique

Polycrystalline cadmium telluride films were successfully deposited on glass substrates by ablating a CdTe target by pulsed Nd-YAG laser. Microstructural studies indicated an increase in the average crystallite size from 15 nm to similar to 50 nm with the increase in substrate temperature during deposition. The films deposited here were slightly tellurium rich. X-ray diffraction pattern indicated that the films deposited at 300 K had wurtzite structure while those deposited above 573 K were predominantly of zinc blende structure. Residual strain in the films deposited at 300 K was quite low as compared to those deposited at higher temperatures. PL spectra of all the CdTe films were dominated by a strong peak at similar to 921 nm ( similar to 1.347 eV) followed by a low intensity peak at similar to 863 nm ( similar to 1.438 eV). Characteristics Raman peaks for CdTe indicated a peak at similar to 120 cm(-1) followed by peaks located at similar to 140 cm(-1) and 160 cm(-1). (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.