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Present work focuses on the preparation and characterization of II–VI thin film semiconductor compound Cadmium Sulfide (CdS), commonly used as window layer in polycrystalline thin-film photovoltaic cells. CdS thin films were prepared by chemical bath deposition (CBD) in six different thicknesses and subjected to heat treatment at five different temperatures in nitrogen atmosphere, in order to find the appropriate film for perfect window layer in copper indium diselenide (CIS)/CdS photovoltaic cells. Structural and optical characterizations were carried out by X-ray diffraction and UV-VIS-NIR spectrometer respectively. Both the Hawleyite (cubic) and Greenockite (hexagonal) phases were observed, the latter being most predominant. Films show good transmittance in visible region and the band gap was found to decrease with the increase in thickness and annealing temperature.
CdS, Thin films, crystal structure, heat treatment.
The work carried out at CINVESTAV-CMTY has been supported by Catedra of nanoelectronics. Authors also like to thank Luis Ixtlilco Cortés from CIE UNAM, Carlos Flores Morales form IIM UNAM and Vidhya Bhojan from ITESM for their useful help during this work.
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