Crystallite size estimation and photosensitivity characterization of nanocrystalline Zn1−xCdxS (0 ⩽ x ⩽ 0.9) based heterojunctions prepared by simple dip-coating

• Thin films of nanostructure Zn1−xCdxS by dip coating.
• Determination of the main microstructure parameters of Zn1−xCdxS.
• Study I–V characteristics of the n-Zn1−xCdxS/p-Si heterojunctions.

Nanocrystalline Zn1−xCdxS (0 ⩽ x ⩽ 0.9) thin films were successfully prepared by simple dip-coating method. The structural characteristics of Zn1−xCdxS were achieved by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The X-ray peak broadening analysis was used to evaluate the crystallite size by using uniform deformation (UDM), uniform deformation stress (UDSM) and uniform deformation energy density (UDEDM) models. The UDEDM model was found to be in good agreement with the results obtained from TEM. Heterojunctions of n-Zn1−xCdxS/p-Si exhibit good rectifying characteristics, especially for x = 0.9. The photocurrent characteristics of n-Zn1−xCdxS/p-Si heterojunctions depend on illumination intensity and increase with increasing power intensity. The transient photocurrent results indicate that photocurrent under illumination increases with increasing light intensity which can be explained by continuous distribution of traps.

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