Effect of Nitrogen Ion Implantation on the Properties of Cadmium Telluride Thin Films

This study reports the effect of ion implantation on structural and optical properties of cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin films. Thin films of CdTe were electrodeposited on indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrates using three electrode system and then implanted with 40 keV nitrogen (N+) ions at Ion Beam Centre, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, India. The ion fluencies opted were 1x10(16) and 5x10(16) ions/cm(2) employing beam current of 0.9 mu A. The pristine and thin films after ion implantation were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and UV-visible spectrophotometer for structural and optical properties respectively. The surface studies of pristine CdTe thin films were obtained by using Scanning electron microscope (SEM) revealed uniform growth of grains over the whole surface of films. XRD characterization of pristine and films after implantation revealed the polycrystalline nature of CdTe films and observed that implantation considerably influences the parameters such as grain size. The variation of absorption plot with wavelength is shown and discussed.