Electrodeposition of ternary compounds for novel PV application and optimisation of electrodeposited CdMnTe thin-films

ALAM, A.E., OLUSOLA, O. I., LOCH, D.A.L., SHUKLA, K., CRANTON, W. M. and DHARMADASA, I. (2020). Electrodeposition of ternary compounds for novel PV application and optimisation of electrodeposited CdMnTe thin-films. Scientific Reports, 10 (1), p. 21445.

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Abstract

Abstract: Growth of polycrystalline CdMnTe ternary compound thin films has been carried out using cathodic electrodeposition technique at different cathodic potentials. The range of the cathodic potentials used in this work has been chosen according to the cyclic voltammogram results. The CdMnTe thin films were electroplated from electrolyte containing CdSO4, TeO2 and MnSO4 in an acidic aqueous medium. Glass/fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates have been used to electrodeposit the semiconductor layers. The structural, compositional, morphological, optical and electrical properties of the CdMnTe thin films were studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Sputtered neutral-mass spectroscopy (SNMS), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV–Vis spectroscopy and Photo-electro-chemical (PEC) cell measurements respectively. The primarily grown as-deposited (AD) layers went through two different post-growth surface treatment conditions- heat-treated in air in the presence of CdCl2 (CCT) and heat-treated in air in the presence of GaCl3 (GCT). Results from the XRD indicated the polycrystalline nature of the electrodeposited films. The electroplated films have cubic crystal structures and the preferred orientation was found to be along the (111) plane of CdMnTe. Inclusion of Mn has been qualitatively observed using SNMS measurement. The optical energy bandgaps of the thin films were found to be varying between ~ 1.90 and ~ 2.20 eV. Though all the layers after post-treatment showed p-type electrical conduction, both p and n-type conductivity were obtained at different cathodic potentials for as-deposited materials. Comparison of the deposited layers to other electrodeposited ternary compounds has also been discussed.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	** From Springer Nature via Jisc Publications Router ** Licence for this article: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ **Journal IDs: eissn 2045-2322 **Article IDs: publisher-id: s41598-020-78066-y; manuscript: 78066 **History: published 08-12-2020; online 08-12-2020; collection 12-2020; registration 20-11-2020; accepted 03-11-2020; submitted 30-07-2020
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Article, /639/166/987, /639/4077/909/4101/4096/946, /639/301/1005/1007, /639/301/299/946, /639/638/161, article
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78066-y
Page Range:	p. 21445
SWORD Depositor:	Colin Knott
Depositing User:	Colin Knott
Date Deposited:	14 Dec 2020 12:14
Last Modified:	17 Mar 2021 19:00
URI:	https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/27750

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