Characterization of CdTe thin films grown on glass by hot wall epitaxy

Abstract

In this work we have investigated the properties of CdTe thin films grown on glass substrates by Hot Wall Epitaxy. Its most important feature is the growth at very low temperatures, which would allow the growth even on polymer substrates. Our samples were grown at temperatures between 150 and 250°C at a growth rate between 0.2 and 2 μ/h. The CdTe films were characterized by x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and optical transmission. The x-ray teta-2teta scans revealed films with cubic structure and a very high degree of preferential orientation. In fact, for films thicker than 1 μm, no other reflections have been observed on the spectra besides the (111), (333) and (444). The scanning electron micrographs showed a grain size about 0.3 μm and the optical transmission indicated a very good optical quality of the interfaces, showing pronounced interference fringes.