Optical properties of thermally evaporated CdS thin films

CdS thin films of varying thicknesses were deposited on cleaned glass substrates at room temperature by thermal evaporation technique in a vacuum of about 2 x 10-5 torr. UV-VIS spectra of the films were studied using the optical transmittance measurements which were taken in the spectral region from 300 nm to 1100 nm. The absorbance and reflectance spectra of the films in the UV-VIS region were also studied. Optical constants such as optical band gap, extinction coefficient, refractive index, optical conductivity and complex dielectric constant were evaluated from these spectra. All the films were found to exhibit high transmittance (∝60-93 %), low absorbance and low reflectance in the visible/near infrared region from ∝ 500 nm to 1100 nm. The optical band gap energy was found to be in the range 2.28-2.53 eV. All the films annealed at 300 C for 4 hours in vacuum (∝10-2 torr) showed a decrease in the optical transmittance with its absorption edge shifted towards the longer wavelength, leading to the result that the optical band gap decreases on annealing the films. Also, on annealing crystallinity of the films improves, resulting in decrease in the optical transmittance. (copyright 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim) (orig.)