“PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF SPRAY DEPOSITED Ba, Li, (Ba+Co) AND (Li+Co)

DOPED CDS THIN FILMS”

Abstract
The use of thin film has been growing at rapidly increasing rate due to their potential applications
in various fields of science and technology. Polycrystalline II-VI semiconductor thin films have attracted
great interest in various electronic and optoelectronic devices. Among the II-VI semiconductor thin films,
cadmium sulphide (CdS) seems to be an attractive optoelectronic, semiconducting and piezo-electric
material. The moderate band gap (2.42 eV) and excellent stability makes it suitable for solar cell
applications as an efficient window layer, phtoanodes in photo-electrochemical solar cells, tuneable light-
emitting diodes etc.
Among the several types of metal chalcoginides CdS is a well-known binary compound and one
of the most promising materials because of its wide range of applications in different kind of hetro
junction solar cell such as cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper indium diselenide/sulphide (CIS) and copper
indium gallium diselenide/sulphide (CIGS) solar cells.

To study the effect of Ba doping on the properties of CdS:Ba thin films were synthesized as
barium concentration is varied as 0, 1, 2 and 3 wt.%. Spray technique using perfume atomizer is used to
deposit CdS:Ba thin films. XRD studies conformed that the undoped and doped films exhibit hexagonal
crystal structure with a strong (0 0 2) preferential orientation. Nanosized rod shaped grains were observed
in the SEM images. The mapping images confirmed the distribution of the elements Cd, S and Ba on the
film surface. From the optical studies high transparency of almost 90% is observed for the 2 wt.% Ba
doped film. The Eg values are found to be equal to 2.47, 2.52, 2.42 and 2.37 eV respectively for the 0, 1,
2, 3 wt.% CdS:Ba thin films. Magnetic Studies confirmed that paramagnetic nature of undoped CdS films
changed to ferromagnetic in the form of S-Shaped loops with B doping. The results obtained confirmed
that the barium ion enhances the optical and magnetic properties of CdS films.
Li doped CdS (CdS:Li) thin films with 0, 1, 2, and 3 wt.% Li concentrations were synthesized by
the spray technique using perfume atomizer. The structural studies confirmed the hexagonal phase of CdS
for all the films. The preferential orientation is along (0 0 2) plane. Nanoneedles were evinced from the
SEM images of the doped films. XPS studies confirmed the presence of elements Cd, S and Li on the
surface of CdS:Li films. From the optical studies, all the films exhibit a maximum transparency of nearly
80%.
 Undoped, Ba-doped, Co-doped and (Ba+Co) codoped CdS thin films were prepared by spray
technique using perfume atomizer. Its structural, compositional, optical, electrical and magnetic
properties were analyzed. The structural studies revealed that the undoped, doped and codoped CdS thin
films crystallize in hexagonal structure with a strong (0 0 2) preferential growth. EDX and XPS spectra
confirmed the existence of Cd, S, Ba and Co in the (Ba+Co) codoped CdS thin films. Co related peak at
652 cm-1 and Ba-S stretching vibrations at 856 cm-1 was observed from FTIR spectrum and it well
confirmed presence of Ba and Co in the codoped film. From the absorption spectra, the band gap value of
2.52 eV was observed for the codoped films which lies between the values observed of the Ba-doped and
Co-doped thin films. Decreased resistivity was observed for the Ba doped, Co doped and (Ba+Co)
codoped CdS thin films.
Undoped, Li-doped and (Li+Co) doped CdS thin films were deposited by spray technique using
perfume atomizer. All the films crystallizes with hexagonal structure with (0 0 2) preferential growth. The
crystallite size values of pure CdS (33 nm) decreased with Li doping (24 nm) and (Li+Co) codoping (22
nm). SEM images showed that the surface morphology of pure CdS modified from cloudy region to
nanorods with Li doping and to nanoneedles with (Li+Co) codoping. The presence of the elements Cd, S,
Li and Co are evinced from the XPS and FTIR spectra. Mapping images confirmed their uniform
distribution on the surface of the film. The optical band gap values were found to be 2.47, 4.43 and 2.51
eV for pure CdS, Li doped CdS and (Li+Co) codoped CdS thin films, respectively.

An cost effective spray method is used to synthesize Ba, Li doped, (Ba+Co) and (Li+Co) codoped
CdS thin films. The synthesized films were characterized by techniques like XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS,
FTIR and PL. Besides these excellent magnetic and photocatalytic properties was observed for the
(Ba+Co) and (Li+Co) codoped films. From the obtained results, the properties of the codoped CdS thin
films have better than that of Ba and Li doped CdS films. Thus, the studies performed here give a way to
CdS thin films in the field of spintronics and dye degradation process. In future various semiconductors
may be coupled and used as dopants to improve the efficiency of CdS thin films.

P. SAMIYAMMAL K. PARASURAMAN
Research Advisor