DEPENDENCE OF ELECTROOPTICAL PROPERTIES ON THE DEPOSITION CONDITIONS OF CHEMICAL BATH DEPOSITED CDS THIN-FILMS

Lately, there has been a sharp increase in the publication of papers o n chemical bath deposition of CdS thin films and related materials due to successful results obtained using this method to fabricate CdS thi n-film buffer layers for CuInSe2- and CdTe-based polycrystalline thin- film solar cells. Generally, these papers focus on previously proposed methods of studying film characteristics without a systematic study o f the influence of deposition conditions on film characteristics. In t his paper we present an exhaustive study of the chemical bath-deposite d CdS thin films electro-optical properties dependence on deposition v ariables. We propose not only a set of conditions for obtaining CdS th in films by this method but additionally, suitable deposition process conditions for certain application requirements, such as buffer layers for thin-film solar cells. The observed electro-optical characteristi cs dependence on the deposition variables corroborates the chemical me chanism that we proposed previously for this process.