Effect of substrates on structural, optical, electrical and morphological properties of evaporated polycrystalline CdZnTe thin films

It is well known fact that the physical properties of a thin film could be tuned by substrate during deposition process. Therefore, a study on the effect of substrates on structural and opto-electrical properties and surface morphology of CdZnTe thin films (400 nm) deposited by electron beam evaporation onto commercial glass, indium tin oxide (ITO) and silicon wafer, has been undertaken. The films exhibited zinc-blende structure and grain size as well as other structural parameters (i.e. internal strain, dislocation density, lattice constant) were found to be affected by the nature of substrates. The optical band gap was found in the range 2.06-2.33 eV and depended on the substrates while the electrical conductivity was observed maximum for films on ITO substrate. The surface morphology of films was also found to be uniform and homogeneous.