See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/332566337

Different rare earth (Sm, La, Nd) doped magnetron sputtered CdO thin films
for optoelectronic applications

Article  in  Journal of Materials Science Materials in Electronics · April 2019

DOI: 10.1007/s10854-019-01342-9

CITATIONS READS

0 120

6 authors, including:

P. Sakthivel S. Asaithambi
Alagappa University Alagappa University
23 PUBLICATIONS   57 CITATIONS    18 PUBLICATIONS   50 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Karuppaiah Murugesan YUVAKKUMAR R

Alagappa University Chungnam National University
10 PUBLICATIONS   1 CITATION    126 PUBLICATIONS   997 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Preparation of Transparent conducting oxide thin films for opto electronic applications View project

Transition Metal Oxide Nanostructures View project

All content following this page was uploaded by P. Sakthivel on 24 April 2019.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-019-01342-9

Different rare earth (Sm, La, Nd) doped magnetron sputtered CdO thin
films for optoelectronic applications
P. Sakthivel1 · S. Asaithambi1 · M. Karuppaiah1 · S. Sheikfareed1 · R. Yuvakkumar1 · G. Ravi1

Received: 19 December 2018 / Accepted: 15 April 2019

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019

Abstract
Pure and rare earth elements of samarium (Sm), lanthanum (La) and neodymium (Nd) doped cadmium oxide (CdO) thin films
were deposited on glass substrates by radiofrequency magnetron sputtering at room temperature. The influence of rare earth
dopants on the microstructural, morphological and optoelectronic properties of the CdO thin films were studied elaborately.
The X-ray diffraction studies revealed the polycrystalline with face centered cubic structure of CdO thin films. The structural
defects were increased with increase of dopant’s ionic radii. The presence of the dopants in host CdO thin films was con-
firmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic analysis. The roughness of the films was decreased for the doped samples and
Nd doped CdO thin film has the minimum roughness value of 1.29 nm. All the films exhibited high transmittance in visible
range and well pronounced Moss-Burstein shift was observed in the band gap value. Emission bands of photoluminescence
spectra depicted the presence of oxygen vacancies. Hall Effect measurement showed an increase in carrier concentration
and electrical conductivity of the films with the addition of dopants. The suitable combination of high conductivity (2872
Ω−1·cm−1) with optical transparency (88%) and lower surface roughness of Nd doped CdO thin film, makes it a potential
candidate for the transparent conducting oxide in optoelectronic devices.

1 Introduction chemical and temperature stability, higher mechanical

The discovery of transparent conducting oxide (TCO) is the
mile stone in transparent electronics and has paved way for
new frontier in the area of optoelectronics. TCOs are the
interesting class of materials that have a unique behaviour
of both optically transparent and electrically conducting
nature due to which they have been used as key component
in many optoelectronic devices such as solar cells, flat panel
display, thin film transistors, light emitting diodes, electro
chromic and energy efficient smart windows etc. [1–3].
Cadmium oxide (CdO) is the first ever discovered transpar-
ent conducting oxide [4] and it has n- type semiconduct-
ing nature with electrical resistivity of ­10−2–10−4 Ω·cm and
has moderate transparency (< 70%) in the visible and near
infra red regions. The fascinating conductivity (­ 102–104 S/
cm) of CdO is strongly attributed to its exceptional carrier
concentration ­(1019 to 1­ 020 ­cm−3) and larger carrier mobil-
ity (30–150 c­ m2 ­Vs−1) [5]. Moreover, CdO possesses good
* G. Ravi
gravicrc@gmail.com; raviganesa@rediffmail.com
1
Department of Physics, Alagappa University,
Karaikudi 630 003, TamilNadu, India
strength due to its simple cubic structure. Adversely, the
optical band gap of the pristine CdO is narrow (2.5 eV)
which affects the transparency in the visible region of elec-
tromagnetic spectrum; consequently it limits the practical
applications of CdO in optoelectronic devices [6]. This is
one of the challenge on which researchers are concentrating.
In TCO thin films, the surface roughness affects the mobility
of charge carriers which in turn reduces the conductivity,
and also roughness induces the light scattering phenomena
which results in reduction of optical transparency. This is
another issue that has to be addressed.
There are lots of techniques available for the deposition of
CdO thin films. In the literature, the various techniques such
as RF/DC Sputtering [7], thermal evaporation [8], pulsed
laser deposition [9], electron beam evaporation [10], chemi-
cal bath deposition [11], sol gel spin coating [12] and spray
pyrolysis [13] are reported for the deposition of CdO thin
films. As far as CdO thin films are concerned, the various
efforts have been taken for tuning the optical band gap and
visible wavelength transparency, increasing the electrical
conductivity and reduction of surface roughness by select-
ing the suitable deposition technique and optimizing its para-
metric conditions [14]. In addition, different elements such

13
Vol.:(0123456789)

as In, Sn, Zn, Al, Ce etc. were introduced as dopants in the
host CdO structure [15–17]. From the review of literature, it
has been observed that the optoelectronic properties of CdO
films can be enhanced by doping of elements having ionic
­ d2+. Especially, the rare earth
radii nearly equal to the host C
4f-metallic elements may be the most potential candidate for
the above mentioned purpose [18]. Hence, further detailed
investigation is needed to understand the effect of rare earth
doping on the physical properties of the CdO thin films.
From device fabrication point of view, RF sputtering
technique offers many attractive features such as uniform,
well adherent and smooth film deposition, large area coating,
easy control over growth rate, contaminants free deposition,
good reproducibility and suitability of using different sub-
strates [19] etc. In author’s earlier work, the CdO thin films
were deposited by RF sputtering technique and the deposi-
tion parameters were optimized successfully [20]. In order to
address the above mentioned problems, in the present work,
the different rare earth metal ions such as samarium (Sm),
lanthanum (La) and neodymium (Nd) doped CdO thin films
are deposited on glass substrates by RF sputtering technique
and the effect of doping elements on structural, morphologi-
cal, compositional, optical and electrical properties of the
deposited CdO thin films are elaborately investigated.
2 Experimental details
2.1 Thin film preparation
Pure and rare earths of Samarium (Sm), Lanthanum (La) and
Neodymium (Nd) doped CdO thin films have been deposited
in argon atmosphere using pure and rare earth metals mixed
CdO target on pre cleaned microscopic glass substrates with
the help of RF magnetron sputtering unit (HINDHIVAC;
Planar Magnetron RF\DC Sputtering System Model-1200
MSPT). The preparation of target is reported elsewhere [20].
For the preparation of rare earth mixed target, the source
materials were taken in the ratio of 90: 10 wt% of (CdO:
­Sm2O3), (CdO: ­La2O3) and (CdO: N ­ d2O3). Prior to deposi-
tion, the substrates were subjected to well cleaning by chro-
mic acid solution for 2 h at 80 °C followed by sequential
cleaning with deionized water, ethanol and acetone. The
substrate to target distance is fixed at 6 cm for all deposition
process. High degree of vacuum in the order of 5 × 10−6
mbar is created in the chamber with the help of diffusion
pump backed rotary pump. As a result of introduction of
ultra high pure (UHP) argon in the flow rate of 25 sccm into
the chamber, the pressure of the chamber rises to 2 × 10−3
mbar, which is maintained as working pressure throughout
the deposition process. For the removal of contaminations
on target surface, pre sputtering was carried out for 10 min.
In order to study the doping effects of different rare earth
13
Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics
materials on CdO film properties, the films were deposited
by varying the target while keeping the other deposition
parameters such as RF power, substrate temperature and
deposition time as 100 W, room temperature and 30 min,
respectively which are based on the experimentation of other
researchers and prior experience with the current sputtering
system.
2.2 Film characterization
The thickness measurement was carried out by Mitutoya
SJ-301 surface profilometer equipped with diamond needle.
Structural properties were examined by XPERT-PRO PAN
analytical diffractometer operated at 40 kV and 30 mA using
the source of CuKα1 radiation (0.154 nm) with the scan-
ning step size of 0.05°. Morphological analysis was done by
using field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM
(ZEISS)). The topography of the films was recorded using
atomic force microscope (AFM) (Bruker Innova) in tapping
mode. In order to identify the oxidation state of the elements
present in the sample, the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
study was carried out using Axis Ultra 165 instrument with
AlKα as the X-ray source with energy up to 1486 eV. Trans-
mittance and reflectance spectra for the films were recorded
using UV–Vis-NIR spectrophotometer (Ocean optics,
USA) in the wavelength range of 300-1000 nm. Photolu-
minescence spectra were recorded with help of Varian Cary
Eclipse spectrophotometer equipped with xenon flash lamp
source excited at 380 nm. The electrical properties of the
films were evaluated by Hall effect measurements (Ecopia-
HMS 3000) with a magnetic field of 0.57 Tesla in Van der
Pauw configuration at room temperature.
3 Results and discussion
3.1 Structural characterization
The measured thicknesses (t) of all the deposited films were
constant as 960 nm. The structural properties and crystalline
quality of pure and different rare earth metals doped CdO
thin films were investigated through XRD and their diffrac-
tion patterns are shown in Fig. 1. From these perspective
patterns, the diffraction peaks were found at 2θ values of
32.88°, 38.00°, 55.24°, 65.44° and 68.94° due to the reflec-
tions of (111), (200), (220), (311) and (222) planes of CdO
respectively. This reveals that the deposited films are poly-
crystalline nature and the relatively stronger intensity peak at
2θ = 32.88° indicates the preferential orientation along (111)
direction. The obtained XRD patterns are in good agreement
with the standard JCPDS No. 050640 which revealed that
the deposited films are cubic structure, Fm-3 m space group
and the atoms are arranged in face centered lattice pattern
Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics
Fig. 1  XRD patterns of pure and rare earth metals doped CdO thin
films
[21]. Apart from the CdO characteristic peaks, no peak cor-
responding to metallic Cd, Sm, La and Nd or their complex
oxides are seen. It is observed that the peak positions of rare
earth elements doped CdO thin films are slightly shifted to
lower angle side compared to pure CdO thin films.
This peak shift is strongly attributed to the ionic radii of
the doping and host elements. The dopant materials such
as ­Sm3+, ­La3+ and N ­ d3+ have ionic radii value of 0.96 Å,
1.03 Å, 1.12 Å respectively and the host C ­ d2+ has 0.97 Å.
The dopants with larger ionic radius induce the structural
strain in the order of 1­ 0−3 in CdO lattice. The structural
strain has caused by a tensile stress due to the incorporation
of foreign atoms into the host lattice and as a consequence,
Table 1  Structural parameters Thin films Peak posi-
of pure and rare earths doped tion (111)
CdO thin films
Sm:CdO 32.713
La:CdO 32.675
Nd:CdO 32.671
the lattice of CdO is expanded and hence the angle shifts to
the smaller 2θ values [22]. Moreover, it can be explained
that higher charge of dopant can alter the oxygen vacancies
concentration depending on their position in CdO lattice and
can occupy interstitial position for C ­ d2+ in the CdO lattice
[23]. Further, it is clearly seen from the figure that the reflec-
tion peaks intensity of doped CdO films is altered which
represents the reduction of crystalline quality. This may be
due to the effect of strain energy in the CdO lattice by rare
earth dopant incorporation and thereby triggering a change
in nucleation and growth kinetics of CdO films. This similar
effect of doped CdO films was observed in the earlier report
of Velusamy et al. [24]. The interplanar distance between
the two adjacent planes (d), the full width at half maximum
(FWHM) value of pure and rare earth doped CdO films are
measured from the XRD patterns and the structural param-
eters such as lattice constant (a), unit cell volume (V) and
radius of the atoms (r) are calculated using the following
relations [25] and the values are presented in Table 1.
1 (h2 + k2 + l2 )
2
= (1)
d a2
V = a3 (2)
√
a 2
r= (3)
4
where, h, k, l are the Miller indices of predominant orienta-
tion. The FWHM of (111) plane for pure CdO thin film is
0.2952 and this value is increased to 0.3936, 0.3444 and
0.5904 for Sm, La and Nd doped CdO films respectively. It
is found that the increment of FWHM of doped films repre-
sents the reduction of crystallite sizes.
The lattice constant value of pure CdO thin film was esti-
mated at 4.717 Å and this is very close to the standard value
of bulk CdO (4.697 Å). The lattice constant increases to 4.741,
4.745 and 4.754 Å for Sm, La and Nd doped CdO thin films.
In general, the lattice constants of the semiconducting materi-
als are strongly associated with the impurity concentration,
presence of defects, mechanically induced strain in the lattice
and different ionic radii with respect to the substituted matrix
ions [26]. Here, the increment of lattice constant suggests that
the introduction of S ­ m3+, ­La3+ and ­Nd3+ into the CdO can
promote the lattice distortion, dislocations and natural defects
FWHM d-value (Å) Lattice Unit cell Radius of
(degree) (111) parameter (Å) volume (Å)3 the atom r
(Å)
0.3936 2.737 4.741 106.5 1.676
0.3444 2.740 4.745 106.8 1.677
0.5904 2.745 4.754 107.4 1.680
13
 Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics

on the CdO films. The atomic radius and unit cell volume of
CdO film increase with the substitution of rare earth elements
(Table 1). It is confirmed that the dopants are successfully
incorporated into the C ­ d2+ ions and as a consequence unit
cell volume and atomic radius of CdO film are increased. In
order to attain further detailed information about the crystal-
line quality of the films, the various structural parameters such
as crystallite size (D), micro strain (ε), dislocation density (δ)
and staking fault probability are calculated and the values are
presented in Table 2. The crystallite size is the measure of size
of coherently diffracting domains. It was estimated by using
Debye Scherer’s relations [27]
K𝜆
D= (4)
𝛽 cos 𝜃
where, D is the crystallite size, β is the full width at half
maximum (FWHM), K is the constant called as shape factor
(taken as 0.94), θ is the diffracted angle and λ is the wave-
length of incident X-ray. The average crystallite size of pure
CdO was found to be 18.423 nm. The average crystallite
sizes of Sm, La and Nd doped CdO films were found to be
decreased to 16.187, 17.164 and 15.351 nm respectively.
This reduction of crystallite size is due to the distortion in
the lattice by the incorporation of foreign impurities that
decrease the growth rate and nucleation of the CdO thin
films [28]. The micro strain (ε), dislocation density (δ), stak-
ing fault probability and number of crystallites per unit area
(N) were calculated by using the following relations [29]
𝛽 cos 𝜃
𝜀= (5)
4 features of pure CdO thin film consist of main ­Cd3d5/2 and
1 respectively splitting with energy of 6.4 eV which is attrib-
𝛿= (6)
D2
� �
2𝜋 2 Δ2𝜃
𝛼= √ (7)
45 3 tan 𝜃
t indicate the presence of ­Cd3p3/2 and ­Cd3p1/2 respectively.
N= (8)
D3
From the Table 2, the micro strain values are increased
from 2.138 × 10−3 to 2.969 × 10−3 and the dislocation density
varies from 4.245 × 1015 to 7.163 × 1015(lines/m2) with the
addition of dopant ions. While adding the dopant material,
the defects such as micro strain and dislocation density are
increased which indicate that the appropriate dopant ions
could promote the defect generation in the CdO lattice and
induce lattice imperfections and as a result decrease the
crystallite size. The number of crystallites per unit area was
decreased with an increase of crystallite size, which may be
due to the coalition between adjacent small grains to form
larger size. The staking fault probability (α) is one of the
major layer defects in crystalline solids that are measured by
the variation of observed and standard XRD peak positions.
Further, it is found to vary from 0.122 to 0.507 for pure and
rare earth doped CdO thin films. The lower value of 0.122
was observed for pure CdO thin films due to slight mismatch
with glass substrate and it increases with respect to the ionic
radii of dopant material.
3.2 Elemental analysis
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) study was carried
out on all the deposited films in order to identify the pres-
ence of elements on the surface of the films and confirm
their oxidation states. The representative wide scan spectra
of pure and rare earths doped CdO thin films are shown
in Fig. 2. The peak found around 284.6 eV is assigned to
carbon in the state of C ­ 1s1/2 due to surface contamination
by atmospheric air. The narrow scan spectrum of cadmium
(Cd), samarium (Sm), lanthanum (La), neodymium (Nd)
and oxygen (O) are shown in Fig. 3a–f. The cadmium 3d
­Cd3d3/2 spin orbit components located at 405.2 and 411.6 eV
uted to the existence of C ­ d2+ and this is exactly matched
with the binding energy of Cd–O bonding, while the peaks
of ­Cd3d5/2 and ­Cd3d3/2 of the rare earth doped CdO films
were slightly shifted to the lower energy which indicate the
substitutions of Cd atoms by rare earth atoms in the CdO
lattice. In addition, the peaks located at 617.1 and 651.7 eV
The characteristic peaks of S ­ m3d5/2 and S
­ m3d3/2 at 1080.4
and 1108.3 eV respectively observed for Sm doped CdO thin
­ m3+ ions exist in the
films (Fig. 3c), which indicate that the S
2+
positions of ­Cd ions. The characteristics peaks of L ­ a3d5/2

Table 2  Microstructral Thin films Average crys- Dislocation density Micro Staking fault Number of crystallites per
properties of pure and rare tallite size D δ × 1015 (lines/m2) strain probability α unit area ­(1016 crystallites/
earths doped CdO thin films (nm) ε × 10−3 m2)

Sm:CdO 17.164 4.245 2.969 0.373 27.52

La:CdO 16.187 5.071 2.370 0.325 30.88
Nd:CdO 15.351 7.163 2.678 0.507 32.57

13
Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics
Fig. 2  Wide scan XPS spectra of pure and rare earth metals doped
CdO thin films
and ­La3d3/2 at 836.6 and 853.8 eV respectively observed for
La doped CdO thin films confirm that ­La3+ ions are doped in
the CdO. The less intense binding energy peaks at 980.5 and
1002.98 eV observed for Nd doped CdO films corresponding
to the ­Nd3d5/2 and ­Nd3d3/2 respectively confirm the oxida-
tion state of ­Nd3+. Figure 3f shows the measured narrow
scan XPS spectra of O1s level, the sharp peak at 528.8 eV
clearly indicates the chemisorbed oxygen in oxide phase
and it denotes the characteristic ­O2− oxidation state. These
observed binding energy values are well matched with the
earlier reports of other researchers [30, 31] and this result
suggests that the rare earth ions such as S ­ m3+, ­La3+ and
3+
­Nd are successfully doped into the CdO lattice.
3.3 Surface characterization
3.3.1 FESEM analysis
The FESEM images of pure and rare earths doped CdO
thin films are shown in Fig. 4. It is found that, all the films
have uniform and smooth morphology. Films are strongly
adhered to the substrate without any defects like pin holes
and cracks. In addition, the films show variations in sur-
face morphology with respect to doping of rare earth. The
variation of morphology may be due to an alteration in
the composition of the films [32]. The pure CdO thin film
consists of nano petal shaped grains with an average size
of 40 nm which are uniformly distributed on the entire
substrate. The morphology of pure CdO was slightly modi-
fied by doping of Sm and the grain sizes were decreased to
the value of 34 nm. This may be due to the distortion pro-
duced by Sm atoms inside the Cd-Sm-O lattice [33]. The
La doped CdO thin film shows undefined smaller sized
grains and in the case of on Nd doped CdO film no grains
were appeared. The average grain size calculated from the
FESEM images is greater than that of average crystallite
size calculated from the XRD because FESEM shows only
the agglomerated structures on the surface of the films
[34]. Among the deposited CdO films, pure CdO film has
uniformly distributed nano petal like grains and the grains
sizes were decreased for doped films and a flat surface was
observed for Nd doped CdO film. This change is strongly
attributed to the variation of ionic radii of the dopants.
Increase of ionic radii of dopants leads to increase of lat-
tice distortion in the host lattice as a consequence nuclea-
tion, agglomeration and growth rate of CdO nano petals
were reduced in the order of Sm:CdO > La:CdO > Nd:
CdO thin films.
3.3.2 AFM analysis
In order to evaluate the effect of different rare earth
dopants on topography of the CdO films, atomic force
microscope images were recorded in non contact mode.
The three dimensional (3D) and two dimensional (2D)
AFM micrographs of pure and rare earths doped CdO thin
films are presented in Fig. 5a–d and a1–d1. From these
images, it is obviously found that the topography of the
films was changed on doping. The pristine CdO thin film
shows nano grains that uniformly distributed on the entire
substrate. The size of the grains decreased with the addi-
tion of dopants. This is due to dopant assisted inhibition
in the growth mechanism. The root mean square rough-
ness ­(Rrms) is used to describe the surface quality, which
affects the light scattering character of the films and it
is strongly influenced by the degree of aggregation and
grain size. The ­Rrms of the films were calculated using the
expression [35]
N
1∑
Rrms = |Z − Zi | (9)
N i=1 m
where, N is the number of deviations in height ­Zi from the
profile mean value Z­ m. The R
­ rms value is found in the range
of 5.40, 2.96, 2.15 and 1.29 for pure, Sm, La and Nd doped
CdO thin films respectively. The R ­ rms decreases with the
introduction of dopant ions and Nd doped CdO film has a
minimum roughness of 1.29 nm which is more suitable for
optoelectronic applications.
13

Fig. 3  Narrow scan XPS spectra of a Cd3d, b Cd3p, c Sm3d, d La3d, e Nd3d and f O1 s of pure and rare earth metals doped CdO thin films
3.4 Optical characterization
3.4.1 UV–Vis spectral analysis
To investigate the effect of rare earth doping on optical
properties of CdO thin films, the transmittance and reflec-
tance spectra of pure and rare earth doped CdO films were
recorded using UV visible NIR spectrometer in the wave-
length range from 300 to 800 nm. Figure 6 shows the optical
13
Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics
transmittance spectra of pure and rare earth doped CdO
thin films which revealed that the deposited films are highly
transparent in the visible region and the average transmit-
tance values are higher than 75% for all films. The average
transmittance of pure CdO thin film is 76% and this value
increases to 88% for doped CdO thin films. The change in
transmittance with the addition of rare earth ions is strongly
attributed to the surface roughness of the films. The sur-
face roughness value decreased with the addition of dopant
Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics
Fig. 4  FESEM images of a pure b Sm doped c La doped and d Nd doped CdO thin films
which enhances the transparency of the films by reducing
the light scattering [36]. This hypothesis is well supported
by the results obtained from AFM. The interference fringes
are obtained in the examined range of 500–800 nm which
indicates that the surface is highly smooth and homogene-
ous. The formation of fringes is strongly associated with the
path difference and refractive index of the films [37]. The
pure CdO film shows the sharp absorption edge at around
450 nm which agrees well with the theoretical band gap of
CdO (2.5–2.7 eV) [38] and the absorption edge of doped
CdO films are slightly shifted towards the lower wavelength
region (blue shift) with respect to the dopants ionic radii
value which indicates the widening of optical band gap (Eg)
of films. The blue shift of the absorption edge is due to the
formation of films in nano range, enhancement of crystallin-
ity and increment in carrier concentration [39]. This result
is in good agreement with the XRD and Hall measurement
studies and the similar blue shift band gap energy of rare
earth doped CdO films was observed in the earlier work of
Velusamy et al. [40].
The optical absorption coefficient can be directly calcu-
lated from the transmittance spectra using the relation [41]
( )( )
1
𝛼= 1 − R2 − T (10)
t
where, t is the thickness, T is the transmittance and R is the
reflectance of the deposited thin films. The absorption coef-
ficient is related with energy band gap and is expressed by
the Tauc’s equation [42]
( )n
𝛼h𝜈 = A hv − Eg (11)
where, ‘α’ is the absorption coefficient, ‘A’ is the constant,
‘hν’ is the photon energy, and ‘n’ depends on the type of
transition (n = 0.5—indirect, n = 2—direct). CdO is an n-
type degenerate direct band gap semiconducting material
[43] and hence the Tauc’s plots could be plotted between
the (αhν)2 and photon energy (hν) as shown in Fig. 7. The
extrapolation of the linear region at α = 0 gives the direct
energy band gap (Eg) and is given in Table 3. It is observed
from the table that the energy band gap values increase from
2.66 eV for undoped CdO to 2.81, 2.86 and 3.01 eV of Sm,
La and Nd doped CdO thin films respectively. This widening
of band gap can be explained by the Burstein-Moss effect
13
 Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics

Fig. 5  3D (a–d) and 2D

(a1–d1) AFM micrographs of
pure (a, a1), Sm (b, b1), La (c,
c1) and Nd (d, d1) doped CdO
thin films

(B-M) [44]. In degenerate semiconductor, Burstein pointed
out that lifting of the Fermi level up to the conduction band
by the generation of high carrier concentration (­ Ne) and
hence the optical absorption edge shifts to higher energy.
This effect can be expressed by the following equation [45]
2
Eg = Egi + SBGW Ne3 (12)
where, ­Egi is the intrinsic band gap and ­SBGW is the con-
stant value of 1.35 × 10−18 eV m2 for CdO. It is revealed
from the above expression that the variation of band gap is
directly proportional to the two by third of carrier concen-
tration values. The pure CdO film has the carrier concentra-
tion value of 2.113 × 1019 ­cm−3 and the value is increased
to 2.981 × 1020 ­cm−3 for Nd doped CdO films. So, the blue

13
Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics

3.4.2 Photoluminescence spectral analysis

The PL spectra of pure and rare earth doped CdO thin films
are shown in Fig. 8. From the spectra, all the films exhibit
almost same emissions and have two distinct peaks located
at 485 and 519 nm. The obtained peaks are well matched
with the earlier report by Rajesh et al. [46]. The peak at
485 nm ascribed to the near band edge emission (NBE) of
CdO. Further, the NBE of rare earth doped CdO thin films
was widened with respect to their increment of dopant’s
ionic radii. The green emission peak at 519 nm corresponds
to ionized oxygen vacancies called as trap state emission
[47]. In addition, it is worthy to note that the emission inten-
sity of the doped CdO films is higher than pure CdO. This
indicates the increase in defects due to the introduction of
higher ionic radii dopants which causes lattice distortion in
Fig. 6  Transmittance spectra of pure and rare earth doped CdO thin
films the host CdO. This inference is well matched with our XRD
studies.

3.5 Electrical characterization

For gaining in depth understanding on the effect of different

Fig. 7  Tauc’s plots of pure and rare earths doped CdO thin films
shift of the absorption edge can be reasonably explained by
the B–M effect.
rare earth doping on electrical properties of transparent CdO
thin films, the various electrical properties such as carrier
concentration (n), carrier mobility (μ), resistivity (ρ) and
conductivity (σ) were measured by Hall effect measurement
in Van der Pauw configuration at room temperature and the
measured values are presented in Table 3. The n-type con-
ducting nature of CdO thin films was identified by negative
sign of Hall coefficient. According to the Boltzmann formu-
lation, the conductivity can be expressed as [48]
𝜎 = ne𝜇 (13)
The corresponding electrical resistivity of the films was
deduced from ρ = 1/σ where, σ is the conductivity of the
deposited films. The pure CdO thin film has the conductiv-
ity of 475 Ω−1·cm−1 and significant increase in conductivity
is observed for doped films. The values are 1127, 1510 and
2872 Ω−1·cm−1 for Sm, La and Nd doped CdO thin films
respectively. Similarly, the resistivity of 2.105 × 10−3 Ω·cm
is observed for pure CdO thin film and this value decreased
with the addition of rare earth dopants and minimum value of

Table 3  Electrical and optoelectronic properties of pure and rare earth doped CdO thin films
Sample Carrier Mobility ­(cm2/Vs) Resistivity (Ω. cm) Conductivity Band gap (eV) Average transmittance FOM (Ω−1) × 10−3
concentration (Ω−1.cm−1) (% ­Tavg) 500–800 nm
­(cm−3)

CdO 2.113 × 1019 140.03 2.105 × 10−3 475 2.66 76 1.805

Sm:CdO 5.853 × 1019 120.02 8.870 × 10−4 1127 2.81 81 4.565
La:CdO 1.036 × 1020 91.01 6.624 × 10−4 1510 2.86 83 6.265
Nd:CdO 2.981 × 1020 60.12 3.482 × 10−4 2872 3.01 88 12.636

13

Fig. 8  Photoluminescence spectra of pure and rare earth doped CdO
thin films
Fig. 9  Variation of resistivity of deposited films with respect to car-
rier concentration
3.482 × 10−4 Ω·cm was recorded for Nd doped CdO thin film.
To the best of author’s knowledge, this is the lowest resistiv-
ity for Nd doped CdO thin films prepared by RF sputter-
ing technique reported to date. This low resistivity and high
conductivity of rare earth doped CdO films are mainly due to
non stoichiometric composition. This wide variation of elec-
trical resistivity and conductivity of the deposited films are
strongly attributed to their carrier concentration and mobility.
The variation of resistivity of the deposited films as a func-
tion of carrier concentration is shown in Fig. 9 [49].
It is noticed from the figure that the electrical resistivity of
the films decrease while the carrier concentration increases
progressively in doped CdO films. The measured carrier con-
centration values agreed well with the reported values and
13
Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics
these values are increased from 2.113 × 1019 for pure CdO film
to 5.853 × 1019, 1.036 × 1020 and 2.981 × 1020 ­cm−3 for Sm,
La and Nd doped CdO thin films respectively. The increase
of carrier concentration is due to the generation of more free
electrons in doped films which are from the donor sites associ-
ated with oxygen deficiencies, metal interstitials and substitu-
tion of impurities [50]. The metal interstitials as ­Cd2+ and the
rare earth impurities such as S­ m3+, ­La3+ and N­ d3+ substitute
in the ­Cd2+ also creates the donor states between the valence
band and conduction band. In particular, oxygen deficiency is
the most important source of producing free carriers. Accord-
ing to the Kroger-Vink model, each oxygen deficiency acts as
an ionized donor that provides two free electrons. This could
be expressed by the following equation [51]
o 1
OX = Voo + 2e− + O2 (14)
2
where, OX is the oxygen positioned at lattice site and Voo is
o
the doubly ionized oxygen vacancy with an effective posi-
tive charge. In addition, it is interesting to mention that the
ionic radius of the dopant increases, the lattice defects such
as oxygen vacancies and interstitials are increased by induc-
ing stress in the lattice and hence the increase of carrier
concentration of films. The increase in carrier concentra-
tion and observed blue shift again confirm the shift in band
gap is due to Burstein-Moss effect. On the other side, we
prepared high mobility CdO thin films; the pure CdO thin
film has the mobility of 140.03 cm2/Vs and the mobility was
decreased to 120.02, 91.01 and 60.12 for Sm, La and Nd
doped CdO thin films. The high mobility of the CdO thin
films (60–140 cm2/Vs) associated with high carrier concen-
tration ­(1019–1020) fulfills the desirable quality of the TCO
materials. Thus, it could be used as transparent electrode
for optoelectronic devices [52]. In general, the mobility of
the films is limited by the effect of microscopic and macro-
scopic imperfections present in the lattice. The microscopic
imperfections associated with ionized and natural donors
could be highlighted by the PL spectra and the macroscopic
imperfections are related to the lattice stress, strain, dislo-
cation density, grain boundaries and surface roughness of
the films which could be identified from the XRD, FESEM
and AFM studies. Figure 10 shows the relation between the
mobility and carrier concentration of the deposited films.
The mobility of films show reverse trend with carrier con-
centration which is in good agreement with the theory of
scattering by grain boundaries, ionized impurities, phonons
and electrons in the doped n-type degenerate semiconduc-
tors. From theoretical point of view, the mobility of semi-
conducting material depends upon the effective mass and
relaxation time which can be expressed as [53]
e𝜏
𝜇= (15)
m∗
Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics
Fig. 10  Mobility and figure of merit value of deposited films as a
function of carrier concentration
Here, τ is the relaxation time, m* is the effective mass of
charge carrier, e is the electronic charge and μ is the elec-
tron mobility. The pure CdO thin film is in good crystal-
line nature and hence it has less grain boundaries, lattice
distortion and point defects that may reduce the scatter-
ing of electrons as a result enchances the relaxation time
as well as electron mobility. Upon introducing the dopant
materials into the CdO, the crystallinity of the films was
reduced with respect to the increment of ionic radii of the
dopants. Also, the grain boundaries and defects of the films
are increased. As a consequence, the scattereing of elec-
trons is increased and the relaxation time, mobilty of the
films are reduced. This result is in good agreement with the
XRD studies observed in the present work. From the XRD
analysis, the crystallite size of the films is in the range of
15–18 nm which is much greater than the mean free path of
the electron (L ~ 1 nm). Thus, the grain boundary scatter-
ing is expected to be insignificant in this case. At the same
time, the carrier concentration of the deposited films is high
and it lies in the range of 1­ 019–1020 which significantly pro-
motes the electron–electron/ionized impurities scattering.
From these results, it is found that the decrease in resitivity
and increase in conductivity of the deposited films despite
a decrease in mobility is due to disproportionate increase of
carrier concentration following the release of free electrons
via oxygen vacancies.
3.6 Optoelectronic properties analysis
In order to use the deposited CdO thin films as the TCO
layer in optoelectronic devices, not only resistivity but also
the transmittance of the films should be considered signifi-
cantly. Thus, the optoelectronic performance of the TCO
was evaluated by examining the figure of merit (FOM) value
using the Haacke formula [61]
T10
𝜙TC = (16)
Rs
where, T is the transmittance (500–800  nm) and Rs is
the sheet resistance of the deposited films. According to
this equation, the obtained FOM values are 1.805 × 10−3,
4.565 × 10−3, 6.265 × 10−3 and 12.636 × 10−3 Ω−1 for pure,
Sm, La and Nd doped CdO thin films. It is observed that
all the films have high FOM value and the FOM increases
with the addition of dopant ions and reaches the maximum
value of 12.636 × 10−3 Ω−1 for Nd doped CdO thin films.
This FOM value is greater than the FOM of ITO thin films
(11.9 × 10−3 Ω−1) [62]. The result shows that the Nd doped
CdO thin film has the high optical transmittance in visible
region, high electrical conductivity and has good figure of
merit which implies that Nd doped CdO thin films prepared
by RF sputtering are more suitable for optoelectronic appli-
cations (Table 4).
4 Conclusion
Pure and rare earth (Sm, La and Nd) doped CdO thin films
were deposited on glass substrates by RF sputtering tech-
nique. The effect of rare earth doping on microstructral,
morphological, compositional, optical and electrical prop-
erties of CdO thin films were investigated in detail. The
thicknesses of all deposited films were around 960 nm. The
deposited films were polycrystalline in nature with face
centered cubic structure. The crystallite size of the films
was decreased and thereby structural defects were increased
with the increase of dopant ionic radii. Further, the dop-
ing of rare earth metal ions introduces variations in the
lattice parameter, crystallite size, microstrain, dislocation
density and unit cell volume. The presence of the elements
in the oxidation states Cd3d, Sm3d, La3d, Nd3d and O1s
were confirmed by XPS studies. FESEM images showed
the smooth and uniform morphological surface. The pure
CdO thin film has nano petal like morphology with larger
grain size and with doping, the grain sizes were found to
decrease. The roughness of films was decreased with the
addition of the dopants and reached the minimum value of
1.29 nm for Nd doped CdO thin films. All the films showed
high transmittance (76–88%) and the band gap value varies
from 2.66 to 3.01 eV with doping. The band edge emission
was observed at 485 nm and another emission at 519 nm
indicates the presence of oxygen vacancies. The decreased
resistivity with the increased carrier density was found for
the doped films. The resistivity, charge carrier density and
mobility of the films were in the ranges of ­10−3–10−4 Ω·cm,
­1019–1020 ­cm−3 and 140.03–60.12  cm2/Vs respectively.
From these results, all the deposited films are highly trans-
parent and conducting in nature, of which Nd doped CdO
13
 Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics

Table 4  Comparison of the electrical and optical properties of the CdO thin films by various researchers

Materials Carrier Mobility Resistivity (Ω cm-−1) Average Band gap (eV) Method Ref
concentration ­(cm2/ transmit-
­(cm−3) Vs) tance (%)

Pure CdO 2.3 × 1020 16.02 3.38 × 10−3 70 2.37 Spray pyrolysis [54]

Copper doped CdO 1.07 × 1020 82.9 7.05 × 10−4 80 2.40 Vacuum evaporation [55]
Manganese doped 2.69 × 1020 20.7 1.11 × 10−3 79 2.27 Spray pyrolysis [56]
CdO
Aluminium doped 1.7 × 1019 46.80 0.78 × 10−3 76 2.35 Dip-coating [57]
CdO
Neodymium doped 6.615 × 1020 18.36 0.55 × 10−3 65 2.42 Spray technique [58]
CdO
Hydrogenated CdO 1.05 × 1020 8.5 69.1 × 10−4 80 2.20 Thermal deposition [59]
Silver doped CdO 1.91 × 1020 52.26 0.63 × 10−3 70 2.25 Spray pyrolysis  [60]
Neodymium doped 2.981 × 1020 60.12 3.482 × 10−4 88 3.01 RF magnetron sput- Present work
CdO tering

thin film has the low resistivity of 3.482 × 10−4 Ω·cm with
high optical transparency of 88% in visible range, high figure
of merit 12.636 × 10−3 Ω−1 with lower surface roughness of
1.29 nm which makes it preferred material as TCO layer for
optoelectronic devices.
Acknowledgements  P. Sakthivel gratefully acknowledges UGC,
New Delhi for awarding UGC-BSR fellowship (F.No. 25-1/2014-15
(BSR)/7-14/2007(BSR)/13.03.2015.) and G. Ravi greatly acknowl-
edges the DST-SERB (File No. EMR/2017/001999), UGC-SAP, DST-
FIST, DST-PURSE and RUSA 2.0 for financial support to carry out
this work.
References
1. C.P. Liu, C.Y. Ho, R.D. Reis, Y. Foo, P.F. Guo, J.A. Zapien, W.
Walukiewicz, K.M. Yu, Room-temperature-synthesized high-
mobility transparent amorphous CdO–Ga2O3 alloys with widely
tunable electronic bands. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces. 10, 7239–
7247 (2018)
2. R. Chandiramouli, B.G. Jeyaprakash, Review of CdO thin films.
Solid State Sci. 16, 102–110 (2013)
3. S.C. Dixon, D.O. Scanlon, C.J. Carmalt, I.P. Parkin, n-Type doped
transparent conducting binary oxides: an overview. J. Mater.
Chem. C 4, 6946–6961 (2016)
4. M. Grundmann, Karl Badeker (1877–1914) and the discovery of
transparent conductive materials. Phys. Status Solidi. 212, 1409–
1426 (2015)
5. S. Calnan, A.N. Tiwari, High mobility transparent conducting
oxides for thin film solar cells. Thin Solid Films 518(7), 1839–
1849 (2010)
6. R.K. Gupta, K. Ghosh, R. Patel, S.R. Mishra, P.K. Kahol, Struc-
tural, optical and electrical properties of In doped CdO thin films
for optoelectronic applications. Mater. Lett. 62, 3373–3375 (2008)
7. P. Dhivya, A.K. Prasad, M. Sridharan, Magnetron sputtered nano-
structured cadmium oxide films for ammonia sensing. J. Solid
State Chem. 214, 24–29 (2014)
8. N. Wongcharoen, T. Gaewdang, T. Wongcharoen, Electrical prop-
erties of Al-doped CdO thin films prepared by thermal evapora-
tion in vacuum. Energy Proc. 15, 361–370 (2012)
9. M. Yan, M. Lane, C.R. Kannewurf, R. Chang, Highly conduc-
tive epitaxial CdO thin films prepared by pulsed laser deposi-
tion. Appl. Phys. Lett. 78, 2342–2344 (2001)
10. A. Purohit, S. Chander, M.S. Dhaka, Impact of annealing on physi-
cal properties of e-beam evaporated polycrystalline CdO thin films
for optoelectronic applications. Opt. Mater. 66, 512–518 (2017)
11. H. Khallaf, C.-T. Chen, L.-B. Chang, O. Lupan, A. Dutta, H.
Heinrich, A. Shenouda, L. Chow, Investigation of chemical bath
deposition of CdO thin films using three different complexing
agents. Appl. Surf. Sci. 257, 9237–9242 (2011)
12. S. Duman, G. Turgut, F.Ş. Özçelik, B. Gurbulak, The synthesis
and characterization of sol–gel spin coated CdO thin films: As a
function of solution molarity. Mater. Lett. 126, 232–235 (2014)
13. K. Kesavan, A. Kathalingam, H.-S. Kim, A.R.U. Sundari,
Effects of fluorine doping on structural, optical and electri-
cal properties of spray deposited CdO thin films. Superlattices
Microstruct. 100, 76–88 (2016)
14. B. Saha, R. Thapa, K.K. Chattopadhyay, Wide range tuning of
electrical conductivity of RF sputtered CdO thin films through
oxygen partial pressure variation. Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells
92(9), 1077–1080 (2008)
15. B.J. Zheng, J.S. Lian, L. Zhao, Q. Jiang, Optical and electrical
properties of Sn-doped CdO thin films obtained by pulse laser
deposition. Vaccum 85(9), 861–865 (2011)
16. T.K. Pathak, J.K. Rajput, V. Kumar, L.P. Purohit, H.C. Swart,
R.E. Kroon, Transparent conducting ZnO-CdO mixed oxide thin
films grown by the sol-gel method. J. Colloid Interface Sci. 487,
378–387 (2017)
17. A.A. Dakhel, Effect of cerium doping on the structural and opto-
electrical properties of CdO nanocrystallite thin films. Mater.
Chem. Phys. 130, 398–402 (2011)
18. P. Velusamy, R.R. Babu, K. Ramamurthi, M.S. Dahlem, E. Elan-
govan, Highly transparent conducting cerium incorporated CdO
thin films deposited by a spray pyrolytic technique. RSC Adv.
5, 102741–102749 (2015)
19. W.-M. Cho, G.-R. He, S. Ting-Hong, Y.-J. Lin, Transparent
high-surface-work-function Al-doped CdO electrodes obtained
by RF magnetron sputtering with oxygen flow. Appl. Surf. Sci.
258(10), 4632–4635 (2012)
20. P. Sakthivel, R. Murugan, S. Asaithambi, M. Karuppaiah, S.
Rajendran, G. Ravi, Radio frequency magnetron sputtered CdO
thin films for optoelectronic applications. J. Phys. Chem. Solids
126, 1–10 (2019)

13
Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics
21. M. Bououdina, A.A. Dakhel, Creation of RT-FM in CdO
nanocrystalline powder by codoping with Cu and Gd: effect of
annealing in hydrogen atmosphere. J. Alloys Compd. 601, 162–
166 (2014)
22. L.L. Pan, G.Y. Li, J.S. Lian, Structural, optical and electrical prop-
erties of cerium and gadolinium doped CdO thin films. Appl. Surf.
Sci. 274, 365–370 (2013)
23. A.A. Dakhel, Study of high mobility carriers in Ni-doped CdO
films. Bull. Mater. Sci. 36(5), 819–825 (2013)
24. P. Velusamy, R.R. Babu, K. Ramamurthi, E. Elangovan, J. Viegas,
Effect of La doping on the structural, optical and electrical prop-
erties of spray pyrolytically deposited CdO thin films. J Alloys
Compd. 708, 804–812 (2017)
25. M. Anitha, K. Saravanakumar, N. Anitha, L. Amalraj, Influence
of a novel co-doping (Zn + F) on the physical properties of nano
structured (111) oriented CdO thin films applicable for window
layer of solar cell. Appl. Surf. Sci. 443, 55–67 (2018)
26. J.H. Lim, S.M. Lee, H.-S. Kim, H.Y. Kim, J. Park, S.B. Jung,
G.C. Park, J. Kim, J. Joo, Synergistic effect of Indium and Gal-
lium co-doping on growth behavior and physical properties of
hydrothermally grown ZnO nanorods. Sci Rep. 7, 41992 (2017)
27. T. Marimuthu, N. Anandhan, R. Thangamuthu, S. Surya, Influence
of solution viscosity on hydrothermally grown ZnO thin films for
DSSC applications. Superlattices Microstruct. 98, 332–3419 (2016)
28. S. Dhanapandian, A. Arunachalam, C. Manoharan, Highly
oriented and physical properties of sprayed anatase Sn-doped
­TiO2 thin films with an enhanced antibacterial activity. Appl.
Nanosci 6(3), 387–397 (2016)
29. S. Thiagarajan, M. Thaiyan, R. Ganesan, Physical property explo-
ration of highly oriented ­V2O5 thin films prepared by electron
beam evaporation. New J. Chem. 39, 9471–9479 (2015)
30. P. Velusamy, R.R. Babu, K. Ramamurthi, J. Viegas, E. Elango-
van, Structural, microstructural, optical and electrical properties
of spray deposited rare-earth metal (Sm) ions doped CdO thin
films. J. Mater. Sci. 26, 4152–4164 (2015)
31. S. Kundu, N. Sutradhar, R. Thangamuthu, B. Subramanian,
A.B. Panda, M. Jayachandran, Fabrication of catalytically active
nanocrystalline samarium (Sm)-doped cerium oxide (­ CeO2) thin
films using electron beam evaporation. J. Nanopart. Res. 14, 1040
(2012)
32. X. Han, S. Wahl, P.A. Russo, N. Pinna, Cobalt-assisted morphol-
ogy and assembly control of Co-doped ZnO nanoparticles. Nano-
materials 8(4), 249 (2018)
33. A.A. Dakhel, Transparent conducting properties of samarium-
doped CdO. J. Alloys Compd. 475(1–2), 51–54 (2009)
34. A.A. Mosquera, J.M. Albella, V. Navarro, D. Bhattacharyya, J.L.
Endrino, Effect of silver on the phase transition and wettability of
titanium oxide films. Sci. Rep. 6, 32171 (2016)
35. W.R. Phillips, Atomic force microscopy for thin film analysis.
Surf. Coat. Technol. 68–69, 770–775 (1994)
36. Y. Shihui, H. Zheng, L. L, Siliang Chen, Highly conducting and
transparent antimony doped tin oxide thin films: the role of sput-
tering power density. Ceram. Int. 43(7), 5654–5660 (2017)
37. K. Punitha, R. Sivakumar, C. Sanjeeviraja, V. Ganesan, Influence
of post-deposition heat treatment on optical properties derived
from UV–vis of cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin films deposited
on amorphous substrate. Appl. Surf. Sci. 344, 89–100 (2015)
38. M. Thambidurai, C. Dang, Structural, morphological and optical
properties of CdO nanostructures synthesized by chemical bath
deposition method. Mater. Lett. 221, 244–247 (2018)
39. C.E. Kim, P. Moon, S. Kim, J.-M. Myoung, H.W. Jang, J. Bang,
IYun, Effect of carrier concentration on optical bandgap shift in
ZnO: Ga thin films. Thin Solid Films 518(22), 6304–6307 (2010)
40. R.K. Gupta, K. Ghosh, R. Patel, P.K. Kahol, Bandgap engineering
of rare earth element doped nanostructured cadmium oxide thin
films. Physica E 44(1), 163–167 (2011)
41. L.C.S. Murthy, K.S.R.K. Rao, Thickness dependent electrical
properties of CdO thin films prepared by spray pyrolysis method.
Bull. Mater. Sci. 22(6), 953–957 (1999)
42. H.H. Ahmed, Variation of the structural, optical and electrical
properties of CBD CdO with processing temperature. Mater. Sci.
Semicond. Process. 66, 215–222 (2017)
43. D.A. Cristaldi, S. Millesi, I. Crupi, G. Impellizzeri, F. Priolo,
R.M.J. Jacobs, R.G. Egdell, A. Gulino, Structural, electronic, and
electrical properties of an undoped n-type CdO thin film with high
electron concentration. J. Phys. Chem. C 118(27), 15019–15026
(2014)
44. S. Munir, S.M. Shah, H. Hussain, R.A. Khan, Effect of carrier
concentration on the optical band gap of T ­ iO2 nanoparticles.
Mater. Des. 92, 64–72 (2016)
45. K. Jeyadheepan, M. Thamilselvan, K. Kim, J. Yi, C. Sanjeeviraja,
Optoelectronic properties of R-F magnetron sputtered cadmium
tin oxide ­(Cd2SnO4) thin films for CdS/CdTe thin film solar cell
applications. J. Alloys Compd. 620, 185–191 (2015)
46. N. Rajesh, J.C. Kannan, G. Neri, T. Krishnakumar, Microwave
Irradiation effect on structural, optical, and thermal properties of
cadmium oxide nanostructure. Acta Phys. Pol., A 125(4), 1229–
1235 (2014)
47. A.V. Moholkar, G.L. Agawane, K.-U. Sim, Y. Kwon, D.S. Choi,
K.Y. Rajpure, J.H. Kim, Temperature dependent structural, lumi-
nescent and XPS studies of CdO:Ga thin films deposited by spray
pyrolysis. J. Alloys Compd. 506, 794–799 (2010)
48. S. Major, A. Banerjee, K.L. Chopra, Highly transparent and con-
ducting indium-doped zinc oxide films by spray pyrolysis. Thin
Solid Films 108(3), 333–340 (1983)
49. B. Saha, S. Das, K.K. Chattopadhyay, Electrical and optical prop-
erties of Al doped cadmium oxide thin films deposited by radio
frequency magnetron sputtering. Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells
91(18), 1692–1697 (2007)
50. R.N. Chauhan, N. Tiwari, R.S. Anand, J. Kumar, Development
of Al-doped ZnO thin film as a transparent cathode and anode for
application in transparent organic light-emitting diodes. RSC Adv.
6, 86770–86781 (2016)
51. K. Jeyadheepan, M. Thamilselvan, K. Kim, J. Yi, C. Sanjeeviraja,
Optoelectronic properties of R-F magnetron sputtered cadmium
tin oxide ­(Cd2SnO4) thin films for CdS/CdTe thin film solar cell
applications. J. Alloys Compd. 620, 185–191 (2015)
52. J.K. Rajput, T.K. Pathak, V. Kumar, L.P. Purohit, Influence of sol
concentration on CdO nanostructure with gas sensing application.
Appl. Surf. Sci. 409, 8–16 (2017)
53. S. Calnan, A.N. Tiwari, High mobility transparent conducting
oxides for thin film solar cells. Thin Solid Films 518(7), 1839–
1849 (2010)
54. M. Ramamurthy, M. Balaji, P. Thirunavukkarasu, Characterization
of jet nebulizer sprayed CdO thin films for solar cell application.
Optik Int. J. Light Electron. Opt. 127, 3809–3819 (2016)
55. A.A. Dakhel, Optical and electrical properties of copper-doped
nano-crystallite CdO thin films. Solid State Sci. 31, 1–7 (2014)
56. K. Sankarasubramanian, P. Soundarrajan, T. Logu, S. Kiruthika,
K. Sethuraman, R.R. Babu, K. Ramamurthi, Influence of Mn dop-
ing on structural, optical and electrical properties of CdO thin
films prepared by cost effective spray pyrolysis method. Mater.
Sci. Semicond. Process. 26, 346–353 (2014)
57. A.A. Ziabari, F.E. Ghodsi, G. Kiriakidis, Correlation between
morphology and electro-optical properties of nanostructured CdO
thin films: influence of Al doping. Surf. Coat. Technol. 213, 15–20
(2012)
58. M. Ravikumar, R. Chandramohan, K.D.A. Kumar, S. Valanarasu,
V. Ganesh, M. Shkir, S. Alfaify, A. Kathalingam, Effect of Nd
doping on structural and opto-electronic properties of CdO thin
films fabricated by a perfume atomizer spray method. Bull. Mater.
Sci. 42, 8 (2019)
13
 Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics

59. A.A. Dakhel, Electro-optical properties of hydrogenated Si-doped Publisher’s Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to
CdO. J. Electron. Mater. 47(1), 773–777 (2018) jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
60. M.R. Alam, M.M. Rahman, A.M.M.T. Karim, M.K.R. Khan,
Effect of Ag incorporation on structural and opto-electric prop-
erties of pyrolized CdO thin films. Int. Nano Lett. 8(4), 287–295
(2018)
61. G. Haacke, New figure of merit for transparent conductors. J.
Appl. Phys. 47(9), 4086 (1976)
62. M. Nisha, M.K. Jayaraj, Influence of RF power and fluorine dop-
ing on the properties of sputtered ITO thin films. Appl. Surf. Sci.
255(5), 1790–1795 (2008)

13

View publication stats