Preparation and Properties of CdZnTe Thick Film on Doped ZnO Film Substrates

Cadmium zinc telluride (CdZnTe) is considered to be an ideal material for manufacturing high-energy radiation detectors with large scale and long-term stability. To solve the problem of film fragmentation during the process of preparing CdZnTe thick films using the close-spaced sublimation method, Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) was chosen as the substrate for CdZnTe film growth, since it has a similar thermal expansion coefficient, lower lattice mismatch, and better adhesion compared with CdZnTe. For comparison, borosilicate glass and fluorine-doped tin oxide substrates were also used to deposit CdZnTe under the same preparation conditions. The structure and physical properties of the CdZnTe film were investigated in detail by using atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectrometry, x-ray diffraction analysis, and current–voltage (I–V) measurements. The results indicated that CdZnTe film grown on GZO film substrate has large grain size, high growth rate, high quality, and good adhesion.