Effect of annealing on chemically deposited polycrystalline CdTe thin films

The effect of annealing on structural, optical and surface properties of CdTe thin films grown by chemical bath deposition was investigated. CdTe thin films have been deposited by using triethanolamine as a complexing agent in an aqueous alkaline medium at 60 °C. Thin films of CdTe were characterized by UV–visible spectrophotometer, X-ray diffraction technique, and scanning electron microscopy. Optical studies showed that, it has a high absorption coefficient (104–105 cm−1) and band gap values were found to be in the region of 1.45–1.38 eV. X-ray diffraction studies showed that all the films are polycrystalline in nature. The lattice parameter, grain size were calculated and correlated with annealing temperature.