Effects on structural, electronic transport and optical properties of doped and undoped ZnTe thin Films for CdTe/Cd solar cells

To overcome the naturally existing Schottky barrier problem between p-CdTe and any metal, an intermediate semiconductor thin buffer layer is a better choice prior to the final metallization for contact. Among many investigated back contact materials the ZnTe is suitable as a buffer layer. ZnTe thin films were deposited onto glass substrates by the thermal evaporation technique under vacuum approx. equal to 2 X 10/sup -5/mbar. Undoped ZnTe thin films are highly resistive, extrinsic doping of Cu was made to improve the electrical conductivity. Films were doped by immersing in Cu NO/sub 3/)sub 2)/.5H/sub 2/O solutions for Cu doping. To optimize the growth parameters the prepared films were characterized using various techniques. The structural analysis of these films was performed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique and optical transmission. X-ray diffraction identified the phases present in these films and also observed that the prepared films were polycrystalline. Also the spectral dependence of absorption coefficient was determined from spectrophotometer. Energy band gap index were calculated from obtained optical measurements data. (author)