Growth of p-CdTe thin films on n-GaN/sapphire

Abstract

CdTe thin film was successfully grown on GaN/Sapphire substrate using a close spaced sublimation (CSS) system for the applications in solar cells. CdTe thin film was characterized by SEM, micro-Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. The growth rate was 1 mu m/min. In addition, we confirmed that CdCl2 treatment beneficially influenced the structure and composition of the CdTe thin films. CdCl2 treatment which has been known that it improved the efficiency of the CdS/CdTe solar cells, produced similar positive effects such as increasing the CdTe grain size and reducing the number of pin-holes. The growth of the CdTe thin film by CSS method produced nominal effects on biaxial strain and carrier concentrations in the GaN/Sapphire substrate. The CdTe thin film grown on the GaN/Sapphire substrate holds great promise for use in solar cell applications due to its several advantages. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.