Developing Analysis Criteria to Adjust the Growth of CdS and CdTe Thin Films Using the PLD Technique, for Solar Cell Purposes

The goal of this research is to obtain technical information of the conformation of the CdTe/CdS junctions deposited on an ITO/Glass substrate. Their physical conditions to deposit each single layer will enable appropriate configurations to be applied on electronic devices such as alternative solar cells on silicon technology. Firstly, CdS thin films were deposited upon an ITO/Glass substrate at room temperature, with 9,000 shots at the rate of 10 shots/s, at different pressures of 20, 40, 60, 65, 70, 75 and 90 mTorr. Afterwards, CdTe thin films were grown on glass substrates all with 100,000 shoots at the rate of 10 shots/s, at the same pressure of 100 mTorr, but at different substrate temperatures: 100, 200, 300 and 400 degrees C. For CdS at the rate of 0.1 nm/s good films of 150 nm were produced in 1,500 seconds (25 min), while for CdTe at the rate of 0.0696 ≈ 0.07 nm/s, films of 696 nm in 10,000 s (166.66 min) were produced. Their morphologies, crystallite size and resistivities were also studied to propose the optimized CdTe/CdS junction for a photovoltaic application.