R. Castro-rodriguez et al., Effect of indium tin oxide substrate roughness on the morphology, structural and optical properties of CdS thin films, APPL SURF S, 161(3-4), 2000, pp. 340-346
Indium tin oxide (ITO) coatings of glass substrates were etched with hydroc
hloric acid in order to obtain different root-mean-square roughness (R-ITO)
on its surface. The effect of R-ITO on the morphology, structural and opti
cal properties of CdS films deposited was investigated. Polycrystalline cad
mium sulfide thin films were deposited on ITO/glass substrates by chemical-
bath deposition (CBD) at 358 K, and studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM
). Roughness of CdS films (R-CdS) showed a nearly linear increase with R-IT
O. The thickness of CdS films was investigated by Auger Electron Spectrosco
py (AES) and showed an increment with R-CdS. X-ray diffraction results show
ed that CdS films have a cubic zincblende structure with a(lll) preferred o
rientation. The measured residual strain of the CdS films showed an initial
increse with R-ITO reaching a maximum point at 15 +/- 2 nm, and after that
exhibited a decreasing dependence. The optical band gap E-o of the CdS fil
ms obtained from transmittance measurements did not depend on R-ITO. (C) 20
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