Investigation of chemical bath deposition of CdO thin films using three different complexing agents

► Chemical bath deposition of CdO thin films using three different complexing agents is investigated. ► As-grown films are mainly cubic CdO2, with some Cd(OH)2 and CdO phases being detected. ► The band gap of as-grown films is around 3.37-4.64 eV, and about 2.53 eV for annealed films. ► RBS reveals cadmium to oxygen ratios of about 1.00:1.74 ± 0.01 and 1.00:1.00 ± 0.01 for as-grown and annealed films, respectively. ► A carrier density as high as 1.89×1020 cm−3 and a resistivity as low as 1.04 × 10−2 Ω-cm are obtained.