The effect of CdCl 2 treatment on the structural properties and electrical conductivity types of ZnTe thin films

Abstract

This paper reports the successful surface treatments of p- and n-ZnTe thin film semiconducting layers prepared by electrodeposition technique. The surface treatment was carried out by using a chlorine precursor which is CdCl2. The initial experiment carried out by applying CdCl2 treatment to ZnTe layers of approximately 1200 nm showed that the CdCl2 treatment did not introduce additional Cd-related phase to the ZnTe layers as revealed by the X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements carried out on glass/FTO/p-ZnTe and glass/FTO/n-ZnTe mono-layers. The electrical conductivity type as determined from photo-electro-chemical (PEC) cell measurement also showed that after applying CdCl2 aqueous solution for the treatment of p- and n-ZnTe layers grown on conducting glass substrates, the type remains unchanged.