Study on structural, optical and electrical properties of CdS0.5Se0.5 thin films for photovoltaic applications

Thin films of CdS0.5Se0.5 have been deposited on ultra-clean glass substrates by screen-printing method followed by sintering process. Cadmium sulphide, cadmium selenide and cadmium chloride have been used as the basic source material. Optimum conditions for preparing good quality screen-printed films have been found. X-ray diffraction studies revealed that the films are polycrystalline in nature, exhibiting wurtzite (hexagonal) structure with strong preferential orientation of grains along the (0 0 2) direction. The optical band gap of the films has been studied using reflection spectra in wavelength range 350–900 nm by using double beam spectrophotometer. The electrical resistivity of the films was measured in vacuum by two probe technique.