CdTe nano-structures for photovoltaic devices

CdTe nano-structures with diameter of ∼100 nm and variable length (200-600 nm) were fabricated on glass substrates covered with conductive buffer layers such as NiCr, ZAO (ZnO:Al2O3 + Ta2O5) or TiPd alloys. The fabrication process consisted of the starting vapour deposition of metal catalyst dropped layer followed by the isothermal catalyst-prompted vapour growth of CdTe nano-structured layer of controllable shape and surface filling. The effect of buffer layers on the crystallographic orientation and thickness of CdTe nano-structured layers is investigated by means of IBA techniques, SEM and X-ray diffraction. It was shown that the formed CdTe nano-layers have a cubic structure, mainly oriented towards the [1 1 1] crystallographic direction, except for those grown on ZAO layer where the X-ray diffraction signal is very weak to be associated to any crystallographic form. The RBS spectra recorded on different areas of each sample type showed an almost constant thickness and SEM images revealed an homogeneous and dense distribution of the structures. It was also possible to study the first stage of the nano-structures grown on the Bi2Te3 seeds.