A facile route for synthesis of cadmium sulfide thin films

This study describes a facile spin-coating deposition technique for cadmium sulfide thin film. The structural analysis revealed the formation of a pure hexagonal cadmium sulfide phase. The lattice constant, the crystallite size, dislocation density and micro strain were calculated. Energy dispersive x-ray analysis confirmed that these as-prepared CdS thin films are stoichiometric. The surface morphology studies showed homogenous and uniform films without any cracks with a low surface roughness of value 9 nm. The optical analysis indicated a relatively high transmission, optical band gap of 2.4 eV and Urbach energy value of 0.48 eV. All these properties indicate that cadmium sulfide thin films prepared by this simple route can be used as a window in heterojunction photovoltaic solar cells.