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Variation of optical, structural, electrical and compositional properties of

thermally evaporated CdTe thin films due to substrate temperature

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DOI: 10.1007/s10854-016-5521-2

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J Mater Sci: Mater Electron
DOI 10.1007/s10854-016-5521-2
Variation of optical, structural, electrical and compositional
properties of thermally evaporated CdTe thin films due
to substrate temperature
P. K. K. Kumarasinghe1 • Amila Dissanayake2 • B. M. K. Pemasiri1,3
B. S. Dassanayake1,3
Received: 9 July 2016 / Accepted: 8 August 2016
Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016
Abstract Alteration of substrate temperature of thermally
evaporated CdTe thin films can cause changes to the film
structure and composition, affecting its optical, electrical as
well as morphological properties. In this respect, poly-
crystalline CdTe thin films were deposited using thermal
evaporation technique under different substrate tempera-
tures from 125 to 300 °C. The optical, structural, compo-
sitional, morphological and electrical properties were
studied using UV–visible spectroscopy, GIXRD, EDX,
SEM and van der Pauw method, respectively. Optical
measurements revealed that the band gap of the films
slightly increase with increasing substrate temperature.
Structurally, the lattice parameter and the crystallite size of
the CdTe films deposited under a substrate temperature of
200 °C was found to be considerably higher than the rest of
the substrate temperatures investigated. Texture coefficient
indicate that the (111) plane becomes preferable as the
substrate temperature is elevated to 300 °C. The lowest
electrical resistivity was also found for samples deposited
under a substrate temperature of 200 °C. Furthermore,
EDX results reveals the composition of CdTe film con-
siderably vary with respect to the substrate temperature at
which the film was fabricated.
& B. S. Dassanayake
buddhikad@pdn.ac.lk
1
Postgraduate Institute of Science, University of Peradeniya,
Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
2
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Western Michigan
University, Kalamazoo, MI 49008, USA
3
Department of Physics, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya,
Sri Lanka
•
1 Introduction
During the past few decades many binary semiconductors,
especially from II to VI group, have been thoroughly
investigated due to their potential applications in various
fields, including photovoltaic and photoconductive device
manufacturing [1] such as field effect transistors [2], IR
detectors [3], magneto-optic devices [4] and high efficiency
solar cells [5]. Among these II–VI semiconductors, cad-
mium telluride (CdTe) stands out as a very interesting
semiconductor in the form of thin films. CdTe has a direct
band gap of about 1.5 eV, which is nearly optimum for solar
cells, and has a high optical absorption coefficient
([104 cm-1) at band edge [6]. As a result, CdTe thin films
with only few microns thickness are required to effectively
absorb most of the solar photons with energy higher than its
band gap. Therefore, CdTe is an ideal light absorbing
material to be used for single p–n junction solar cells, which
carries a theoretically predicted high power conversion
efficiency of 28 %. Additionally, CdTe has an extraordinary
stability during the application processing; leading to a rapid
development of CdTe based solar cells in recent years [7].
CdTe thin films have a polycrystalline nature and can
exist in both cubic and hexagonal forms [8, 9]. In its cubic
zinc-blende structure, CdTe possess a lattice parameter of
6.481 Å in its powder form [10]. But process parameters
during the deposition, as well as post-deposition treatments
can cause fundamental changes to the film structure,
affecting its optical, electrical and morphological charac-
teristics [11]. Since structural properties such as average
grain size, distribution of grain size, distribution of crys-
tallite orientation and surface morphology can affect the
performance of devices such as solar cells [12], under-
standing the micro structure is vital in fabricating high
quality thin films for device manufacture.
123

Varity of methods have been deployed to fabricate CdTe
thin films such as, close-spaced sublimation [13], RF mag-
netron sputtering [14], electro deposition [15], molecular
beam epitaxy [16] and thermal evaporation [17]. Out of these,
thermal evaporation method has benefits such as low level of
impurity presence in the growing layer, low trend of oxide
formation and straight-line propagation of vapors from source
to substrate. Therefore, thermal evaporation is considered as
an attractive method of fabrication of thin films such as
cadmium sulfide [18], cuprous oxide [19], cadmium selenide
[20], CdTe [21] etc., due to its high deposition rate, low
material consumption as well as low cost of operation [22].
Substrate temperature during the fabrication process can
critically affect the properties of the film. Therefore, opti-
mizing substrate temperature is essential for fabricating high
performance devices. Not only substrate temperature, but
also post deposition treatments such as chemical etching,
CdCl2 treatment, metal doping and annealing at N2 envi-
ronment, can also improve the efficiency of the device sig-
nificantly. However, it is challenging to fabricate high
quality CdTe thin films when their compositional and
structural properties are not well understood. Therefore, in
this work, the effect of substrate temperature on the struc-
tural properties of the film is extensively studied along with
compositional analysis throughout the cross section of CdTe
thin films, which has been rarely studied. The influence of
substrate temperature on structural properties has been
characterized using grazing incidence X-ray diffraction
(GIXRD) technique and depth profile analysis was carried
out using energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopic
measurements for films deposited under different substrate
temperatures. Additionally, optical, morphological and
electrical characterizations were conducted using UV–visi-
ble spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and
van der Pauw methods respectively.
2 Experimental details
CdTe thermal evaporation was done using an alumina
crucible with commercially available CdTe powder
(Sigma-Aldrich, \250 lm, deposition grade, C99.99 %).
The chamber was emptied at a pressure better than
2 9 10-5 Torr by combination of rotary and diffusion
pumps. CdTe films of thickness 5 lm were deposited on
clean soda lime glass substrates using Edwards Vacuum
Coating Unit, keeping substrates fixed at 12 cm above the
crucible. The growth rate was controlled by keeping the
sources temperature constant at 650 °C. Prior to deposition
of CdTe films on soda lime glass substrates, the substrates
were cleaned using the standard cleaning procedure
[23, 24]. During the process of deposition, the substrate
temperatures were maintained constant at 125, 150, 200,
123
J Mater Sci: Mater Electron
250 and 300 °C using a resistance heating system.
Deposited CdTe thin films were later air-annealed at
400 °C for 20 min, to resemble the state of the absorber
layer of a typical CdTe based solar cell [25]. Structural
properties of the thin films were analyzed employing Phi-
lips X’Pert X-ray diffractometer GIXRD using CuKa
radiation with k = 1.54184 Å in continuous mode at
generator voltage of 45 kV in 40 mA tube current using
0.02 scan step size with the step time of 5 s and 2h in the
range of 10°–100°. Atomic compositions of CdTe thin
films were analyzed by micro analytical technique of EDX
spectroscopy using INCA X-act SN 67217 EDX under
accelerating voltages from 10 to 20 kV. Optical measure-
ments were conducted at room temperature in the wave-
length range from 200 to 1000 nm using a UV-1800
Shimadzu double beam UV–Vis spectrophotometer. Mor-
phological analysis was conducted using ZEISS EVO|LS15
SEM under a beam current of 30 lA. Electrical charac-
terizations of the samples were carried out by van der Pauw
method using Keithley 485 Auto-ranging Picoammeter via
forming Au contacts by means of thermal evaporation.
3 Results and discussion
3.1 Optical characterizations
Optical measurements are one of the most important tools
of determining the band structure of semiconductors. The
absorption coefficient (a) of CdTe thin films were calcu-
lated from the optical transmittance measurements using:
 
2:303 1
a¼ log ð1Þ
d T
where T is the transmittance and d is the thickness of the
film. The absorption coefficient can be written in general
form as a function of incident photon energy as:
 n
aht ¼ A ht  Eg ð2Þ
where A is a constant, h is the Planck’s constant, t is fre-
quency of the incident radiation, Eg is the optical band gap
and n = 1/2. Extrapolation of the linear region of (aht)2
versus ht plot at a = 0 gives the direct energy band gap
[26–28]. The Eg values which were calculated accordingly
are indicated for different substrate temperatures in Fig. 1.
According to the results, the Eg of the films were found to
slightly increase with increasing substrate temperature.
3.2 Structural characterization
X-ray diffraction data were analyzed in order to study the
effect of substrate temperature on structural properties of
J Mater Sci: Mater Electron
Fig. 1 Variation of band gap with substrate temperature
the deposited thin films. Fig 2 shows the results obtained at
different substrate temperatures from 125 to 300 °C, after
annealing at 400 °C for 20 min. All CdTe thin films are
polycrystalline in nature and have a cubic zinc-blende
structure, with reflections corresponding to (111), (220),
(311), (400), (331), (422), (511), (440), (531) and (620)
Fig. 2 X-ray diffractograms of CdTe thin films deposited under
substrate temperatures from 125 to 300 °C. All samples were
annealed at 400 °C for 20 min
plane orientations according to ICDD-PDF file 00-015-
0770. No phase change was observed for any film with
varying substrate temperatures. Furthermore, additional
reflections at 27.71° corresponding to (101) planes of the
hexagonal Te (ICDD-PDF file 36-1452), at 28.70° and
29.92° corresponding to TeO2 (ICDD-PDF file 84-1777)
and at 33.19° corresponding to CdO (ICDD-PDF file
75-0594) were also identified. The strong diffraction peak
of Te is only seen for films deposited under a substrate
temperature of 200 °C, while CdO and TeO2 peaks are
more pronounced for films deposited at 125 and 150 °C.
According to Fig. 2, the intensity of the reflection (111)
is observed to increase with increasing substrate tempera-
ture. This may be attributed to considerable improvement
of orientation along (111) plane. Quantitative information
regarding the preferential orientation of the crystallites
along a crystal plane (hkl) in a thin film can be described by
the texture coefficient (Chkl) [10, 29, 30].
IðhklÞ
Chkl ¼
I0ðhklÞ
ð3Þ
P IðhklÞ
1
N N I0ðhklÞ
Here, I(hkl) is the measured intensity, I0(hkl) is the
intensity of the standard sample (ICDD-PDF file 00-015-
0770) and N is the number of reflections. Here Chkl gives a
measure of the enhancement of the (hkl) reflection in
comparison to a completely randomly oriented sample.
Texture coefficient for the fabricated thin films was cal-
culated considering 10 reflections corresponding to CdTe
mentioned previously. Figure 3 shows the variation of
texture coefficient of the planes considered with respect to
substrate temperature. The result indicates that (111) plane
becomes the preferable orientation as substrate temperature
is elevated to 300 °C.
Fig. 3 Variation of texture coefficient with substrate temperature
123

X-ray diffractograms of as-deposited and annealed
films, both deposited under a substrate temperature of
200 °C, are compared in Fig. 4. According to the results,
the as-deposited film is highly textured along (111) direc-
tion as seen in Fig. 4b. At higher annealing temperatures,
the atomic, ionic, or molecular species of CdTe formed on
the substrate surface acquire a large thermal energy and
hence a large mobility giving way to the recrystallization
process in the film [31]. Due to this recrystallization pro-
cess and the subsequent formation of planes of cubic zinc
blende structure of CdTe film, the Bragg reflections of
X-rays at the corresponding planes become possible, as
seen in Fig. 4a. The emergence of Te peak after annealing
suggests that there is excess Te, which precipitates as a
result of the annealing process [32]. The SEM images of
the CdTe surface before and after annealing are shown in
Fig. 5. The rod-like features in Fig. 5b are seemed to
appear as a result of the annealing process.
According to Fig. 2, the angular positions of the
diffraction peaks were found to be slightly shifted towards
Fig. 4 X-ray diffractograms of CdTe thin films deposited under a
substrate temperature of 200 °C a annealed at 400 °C for 20 min,
b as-deposited
Fig. 5 SEM images of CdTe at 50 K magnification for samples deposited under a substrate temperature of 200 °C a as-deposited, b annealed at
400 °C for 20 min
123
J Mater Sci: Mater Electron
the lower side. Such deviations are an indication of a
potential variation of corresponding lattice parameter (a0)
of the film. Lattice parameter related to each peak of the
GIXRD pattern can be determined using the relation:
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ao ¼ d h2 þ k 2 þ l 2 ð4Þ
where d = k/2 sinh and h, k, l are the Miller indices for the
diffraction peaks. The Nelson and Taylor method
[6, 11, 33] was used to calculate a0 of the CdTe thin film.
In this method the a0 values calculated for different peaks
are plotted against cos2h [(sinh)-1 ? h-1)], and the lattice
parameter of the thin film is obtained by the intercept of the
graph. Variation of calculated a0 values with respect to
substrate temperature is shown in the Fig. 6. According to
the results, highest a0 value of 6.488 Å was recorded for
samples fabricated under a substrate temperature of
200 °C.
A considerably high a0 value was obtained for films
deposited under a substrate temperature of 200 °C, where
the strong Te peak was seen in Fig. 2c. The existence of the
strong Te peak suggests the presence of excess Te on the
Fig. 6 Variation of lattice parameter (ao) with substrate temperature
J Mater Sci: Mater Electron

surface of the CdTe film. During the annealing, diffusing

Te atoms may replace the Cd atoms by a kick off mecha-
nism besides its diffusion at interstitial position in the lat-
tice for a Te rich film [34]. In addition, the difference in
thermal expansion coefficients of substrate and film can
also contribute to a change in lattice parameter. Therefore,
the high a0 observed can be a result of both of these effects.
The lattice parameters for all CdTe thin films, which
were deposited at various substrate temperatures, were
larger than that of the powder sample (6.481 Å). These
higher lattices constants can be due to compressive stress in
the plane perpendicular to the substrate surface. Stress
developed in a thin film is twofold; intrinsic and extrinsic.
Intrinsic stress can be caused by the conditions prevailing
during the deposition of the film (substrate temperature,
deposition rate etc.), whereas extrinsic stress can be caused
by the difference in the thermal expansion coefficients Fig. 7 Variation of stress (r) with substrate temperature for the (111)
between substrate and thin film [11]. plane
For stress fields in thin films that follow the biaxial stress
model, a single in-plane stress component r is sufficient to Kk
bhkl cos h ¼ þ 4e sin h ð7Þ
account for the full stress tensor [35]. Clemens and Bain D
have developed a formula to calculate r for films textured
where K is the shape factor, k is the wave length of X-rays
along the (111) orientations, typical for FCC materials.
used for the measurement, D is the crystallite size, e is the
Using this relationship, r can be calculated by estimating the
micro strain and h is the diffraction angle. The crystallite
magnitude of strain (ew) as shown below [11, 36–38].
size was calculated from the intercept of the linear plot
dw  d0 between bhkl cosh and sinh. Calculated crystallite sizes are
ew ¼ ð5Þ
d0 shown in Fig. 8 for all the samples deposited at different
  substrate temperatures. According to the figure, a
2S11 þ 4S12  S44 S44 2
ew ¼ r þ sin w ð6Þ notable variation of crystallite size with substrate temper-
3 2
ature can be observed.
where ew is the strain at an angle w from the surface normal Crystallinity of the films can be improved by appropriate
of thin film. dw and d0 are the inter-planar distances for Te enrichment. Grains of the film became larger with the
CdTe thin film and powder sample respectively. Here, S11, increase of Te content [34]. According to the Fig. 8, films
S12 and S44 are the components of the 6 9 6 compliance
array for CdTe.
Since (111) plane is comparatively prominent and
becomes preferable as the substrate temperature is ele-
vated, stress values corresponding to (111) plane with
respect to different substrate temperatures were calculated.
The obtained results are shown in the Fig. 7. The films
deposited under a substrate temperature of 200 °C yields a
minimum value of -311 MPa, while all the calculated
stress values are found to be negative. Minus sign of stress
indicates that the (111) plane of the films is subjected to
compressive stress.
Stress of a thin film is directly related to the strain,
which can be identified by studying the broadening of a
particular X-ray diffraction peak from a plane of interest.
In addition, broadening of diffraction peaks also depend on
the crystallite size. Hence, the variation of crystallite size
with respect to substrate temperature was studied using
Williamson Hall (WH) plots [6, 39] via: Fig. 8 Variation of crystallite size with substrate temperature

123

which were deposited under a substrate temperature of
200 °C were found to have the largest crystallite size
(29.16 nm), which is an increment by 2.85 nm from its as-
deposited state. This relatively large crystallite size at
200 °C compared to other substrate temperatures can be a
result of the presence of excess Te in the film.
3.3 Electrical properties
Changes in the structural and morphological properties of
the films with the substrate temperature such as phase
change, enlargement of grains and diminishing of grain
boundaries during deposition process have an effect on the
electrical properties of the deposited films [40]. Fabricated
thin films were electrically characterized using van der
Pauw method to estimate the resistivity. The obtained
results are shown in Fig. 9. According to the figure, the
lowest resistivity (5.2 9 104 X cm) was recorded for
samples fabricated under a substrate temperature of
200 °C, where the largest crystallite size was seen. This
significantly low resistivity value observed at 200 °C can
be related with the presence of excess Te in the sample [34]
as well as the reduction of the number of grain boundaries
due to the increase of the crystallite size [41]. The presence
of materials in excess can be better understood with a depth
profile analysis of the films.
3.4 Depth profile analysis
EDX spectroscopic measurements were employed in order
to study the effect of compositional properties of the
deposited thin films on substrate temperature. Measure-
ments were carried out under electron accelerating voltages
of 10 and 20 kV. The obtained results are shown in Fig. 10.
Comparison between Fig. 10a, b suggests the existence of a
Fig. 9 Variation of resistivity with substrate temperature
123
J Mater Sci: Mater Electron
significant difference between Cd and Te atomic percent-
ages for a film fabricated at a given substrate temperature,
when analyzed using different electron acceleration
voltages.
Depending on the critical excitation energy, character-
istic X-rays may be generated over a substantial fraction of
the electron interaction volume. In order to predict the
depth of X-ray production (X-ray range), the Anderson–
Hasler method can be used. The Anderson–Hasler X-ray
range (Rx) is given by:
0:064 1:68
Rx ¼ ðE0  Ec1:68 Þ ð8Þ
q
where E0 is the accelerating voltage in keV, Ec is critical
excitation energy in keV and q is the specimen density in
g cm-3, then Rx has units of lm [42]. According to the
above relationship, X-ray range for 10 and 20 kV electron
beams are 0.4 and 1.5 lm respectively. Hence, the differ-
ences between the atomic percentages of Cd and Te in
Fig. 10a, b directly suggest an existence of a non-uniform
composition inside the film. In addition, the result in
Fig. 10 also suggests that the composition of the film can
be influenced by the substrate temperature at which the film
was fabricated.
Fig. 10 Variation of Cd and Te atomic compositions with respect to
substrate temperature under a 20 kV and b 10 kV accelerating
voltages. All samples were annealed at 400 °C for 20 min
J Mater Sci: Mater Electron
In order to understand the variation of the film compo-
sition, a depth profile analysis was carried out using EDX
spectroscopic measurements along the cross-section of a
film using a 10 kV electron beam. Measurements were
made for films of 5 lm thickness, deposited under a sub-
strate temperature of 200 °C, for both as-deposited and
annealed films. The results obtained are shown in the
Fig. 11.
As seen in Fig. 11a, it can be observed that the as-de-
posited samples are Te rich close to the substrate (near
5 lm of the figure), while it is almost stoichiometric close
to the surface (near 0 lm of the figure). The intermediate
region in between surface and the substrate appears slightly
Cd rich. Depth profile after the film is subjected to air
annealing is shown in Fig. 11b. According to the result
after annealing, the region close to the substrate appears Te
rich, while intermediate region is Cd rich. The region near
the sample surface appears to be rich in Te.
Sticking coefficient of a given material can depend on
factors such as chemical attachment kinetics and substrate
temperature. In this experimental work, all the CdTe films
were deposited on glass substrates. Experiments on glass
substrates have reported that the sticking coefficient of Te
on glass to be very close to 1.0 for substrate temperatures
Fig. 11 Depth profile analysis of films deposited under a substrate
temperature of 200 °C along the cross-section for a as-deposited,
b after annealing at 400 °C for 20 min (0 lm corresponds to the film
surface)
as high as 250 °C, while it is almost negligible for Cd on
glass, even for substrate temperatures as low as 26 °C [43].
Hence the Te rich nature of the CdTe film close to the
substrate, observed in Fig. 11, can be because of the higher
sticking coefficient of Te on glass compared to Cd at
200 °C.
When comparing Fig. 11a, b, the results suggest that the
film has become Te rich near the surface as a result of
annealing. This observation can be further proven by the
X-ray diffractogram shown in Fig. 4, where a Te peak has
emerged at 27.71 after annealing. In addition, the colour of
the as-deposited film was observed to change from typical
dark gray to light gray after annealing. This transformation
of colour is considered due to surface of CdTe becoming
Te rich [44]. Hence, both the above factors confirm that the
film surface is, in fact, Te rich.
The heat of sublimation of atomic Cd and diatomic Te
are 26.7 and 39.2 kcal mol-1 respectively [45]. When
annealing, CdTe near the film surface can evaporate as
Cd(g) and Te2(g). The Cd vapor pressure is higher than that
of Te2. As a result, when CdTe films are heated, the flux of
Cd atoms escaping from the film surface is higher than the
flux of Te2 molecules. The unequal number of Cd and Te
atoms evaporated from the film originates the formation of
Cd vacancies in the crystalline lattice, making the material
Te rich [46].
4 Conclusion
CdTe films of 5 lm thicknesses were successfully depos-
ited using thermal evaporation technique on glass sub-
strates at different substrate temperatures. Variation of
substrate temperature was found to play a significant role
on the structural properties of the samples. It was observed
that thermally evaporated CdTe thin films have polycrys-
talline nature with cubic zinc-blende structure. In addition
to 10 diffraction peaks from CdTe for all substrate tem-
peratures, a strong peak of Te was seen to emerge after
annealing for films deposited under a substrate temperature
of 200 °C. The (111) plane was found to become the
preferable orientation as substrate temperature was ele-
vated to 300 °C. The lattice parameter, crystallite size and
the electrical conductivity of the CdTe films deposited
under a substrate temperature of 200 °C was found to be
the highest, potentially due to the existence of excess Te
close to the surface while in-plane stress of (111) plane was
found to be the lowest.
The depth profiling was conducted along the cross-sec-
tion of CdTe films, fabricated under a substrate temperature
of 200 °C for both as-deposited and annealed cases. Both
near the surface and near the substrate of the CdTe film was
found to become more Te rich due to higher flux of
123

escaping Cd(g) from the CdTe surface compared to Te2(-
g) and higher sticking coefficient of Te on glass compared
to Cd on glass, respectively. Additionally the intermediate
region of the film was found to become more Cd rich after
annealing compared to the as-deposited. This study reveals
tuning the substrate temperature during the growth of the
film is useful in altering and optimizing the structural,
compositional, morphological and electrical properties of
CdTe thin films.
Acknowledgments Financial assistance from National Science
Foundation of Sri Lanka (NSF, RG/12/BS/03), Prof. S. Sivanan-
thanthan of University of Illinois at Chicago, USA and the Post-
graduate Institute of Science of University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
are gratefully acknowledged. Prof. M.A.K.L. Dissanayake of National
Institute of Fundamental Studies of Sri Lanka and Prof. K. Pre-
maratne of Department of Physics at University of Peradeniya, Dr.
C.V. Hettiarachchi of Department of Chemistry at University of
Peradeniya, Dr. R. Dhere of Sivananthan Laboratories Inc., Boling-
brook, IL, USA, Mr. P.G.S.A. Bandara of University of Mississippi,
Oxford, MS, USA, Mr. R.G.S.A. Perera of Measurement Units,
Standards and Services Department in Sri Lanka, Mr. M.G.S.P.
Amarasinghe and Mr. M.C. Abeysinghe of Department of Physics,
University of Peradeniya and Dr. M. Nandasiri of Western Michigan
University, USA, are acknowledged for their valuable suggestions,
support and guidance.
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