The effect of substrate rotation rate on physical properties of cadmium telluride films prepared by a glancing angle deposition method

•Glancing angle deposition technique was employed to prepare CdTe thin films.•The effect of substrate rate of rotation on optical properties was studied.•Highly tilted and packed columnar structure was fabricated.•A dramatic decline in refractive index in one of the specimens was observed.

Physical properties of cadmium telluride thin films, deposited on glass substrates by modified glancing angle deposition (GLAD) technique with various substrate rates of rotation, were investigated in this study. In contrast to obliquely columnar thin films fabricated by the conventional GLAD technique, in which higher columnar angle is coupled to higher degree of porosity, this study introduces obliquely deposited thin films which have packed columnar structures despite their highly tilted columns. Structural and optical properties and surface morphology of the CdTe thin films deposited by this technique were studied using X-ray diffraction, UV–visible spectroscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy.