Comparative study of electrical properties of Cd and Te-enriched CdTe thin films at cryogenic temperature

Cd and Te-enriched cadmium telluride (CdTe) polycrystalline thin films were grown on corning glass substrates by Close Spaced Sublimation (CSS) technique. The structural investigations performed by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) showed that the deposited films exhibit a polycrystalline structure with 〈1 1 1〉 as preferred orientation. The optical transmittance for Te-enriched CdTe sample was above 0.8 in the range of 1500-2500 nm, which was significantly below 0.8 for Cd-enriched CdTe sample. The electrical properties of these samples were analyzed as a function of the Cd and Te concentration at cryogenic temperature. The electrical resistivity dropped several orders of magnitude. These properties are significantly changed at cryogenic temperature. The comparative study revealed that using this deposition technique, n-type, and p-type Cd and Te-enriched CdTe polycrystalline films can be produced.