Growth time and its associated physico-chemical properties of electrodeposited CdS:Mg thin film.

Simplified two-electrode electrochemical deposition technique with glass/tin-doped indium oxide (glass/ITO) has been used to grow Mg-doped CdS thin films. As precursors, CdCl2, MgCl2 and Na2S2O3 were utilized. To study the physico-chemical properties of the obtained Mg-doped CdS thin-film instruments such as grazing incidence X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy for structural analysis, UV–Vis spectrophotometry for optical properties and scanning probe microscopy for morphological properties have been used. It is observed from grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) data that the films are polycrystalline with only hexagonal phase. Because more metallic ions are deposited on the substrate, the material becomes more crystalline and increases the intensity of distinctive peaks observed. From the obtained optical characterization, it is observed that deposition time significantly influences the bandgap of the film. As deposition time raised from 10 to 25 min the bandgap decreases from 2.44 to 2.39 which makes the film to become more transparent and absorbs less light at shorter deposition times. According to scanning electron microscope (SEM) images, the surface morphology is uniform with tightly packed grains, and as deposition time goes on the grain shapes become less apparent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]