Properties of Al-doped ZnS Films Grown by Chemical Bath Deposition

Zinc sulphide (ZnS) buffer layers are a cadmium free, wider energy band gap, alternative to the cadmium sulphide (CdS) buffer layers commonly used in copper indium gallium diselenide (CuInGaSe2)-based solar cells. However extrinsic doping of the ZnS is important to lower the resistivity of the layers and to improve flexibility of device design. In this work, Al-doped ZnS nanocrystalline films have been produced on glass substrates using a chemical bath deposition (CBD) method. The Al-concentration was varied from 0 at. % to 10 at. %, keeping other deposition parameters constant. The elemental composition of a typical sample with 6 at. % 'Al' in ZnS was Zn=44.9 at. %, S=49.8 at. % and Al=5.3 at.%. The X-ray diffraction data taken on these samples showed a broad peak corresponding to the (111) plane of ZnS while the crystallite size varied in the range, 8 - 15 nm, depending on the concentration of Al in the layers. The films with a Al-doping content of 6 at. % had an optical transmittance of 75 % in the visible range and the energy band gap evaluated from the data was 3.66 eV. The films n-type electrical conductivities and the electrical resistivity varied in the range, 10(7)-10(3) cm, it decreasing with an increase of the Al-concentration in the solution. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Garry Lee