Effects of ammonia concentration on property of Cd1−xZnxS films by chemical bath deposition

Cd1−xZnxS thin films were grown on soda–lime glass substrates by chemical-bath deposition (CBD) at 80 °C with stirring. All the samples were annealed at 200 °C for 60 min in the air. The crystal structure, surface morphology, thickness and optical properties of the films were studied with transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), step height measurement instrument and spectrophotometer respectively. The results revealed that Cd1−xZnxS thin films had cubic crystal structure and the intensity of the diffraction peak increased gradually as ammonia concentration rose and the grain size varied from 5.1 to 8.3 nm. All of Cd1−xZnxS thin films had a granular surface with some smaller pores and the average granule sizes increased from 92 to 163 nm with an increase in ammonia concentration. The Cd1−xZnxS thin films had the highest transmittance with ammonia concentration of 0.5 M L−1, whose thickness was 50 nm and band gap was 2.62 eV.