Structural and opto-electronic properties of electrodeposited CdTe on stainless steel foil

The electrodeposition kinetics of thin film CdTe on stainless steel substrates was investigated. The dispersion of the refractive index is explained with the bound electron dispersion model. The non-dispersive dielectric constant and the bound electron mass were calculated. Films annealed in argon shows a higher value for non-dispersive dielectric constant. Above 0.5 V the transport mechanism changes to space-charge limited current conduction. The carrier transport is mediated with a set of traps with activation energies 0.137, 0.263 and 0.5 eV. The built-in potential of a Au-CdTe Schottky diode was measured for different wavelengths and with different white light intensities. The built-in potential at different wavelengths is almost constant in the absorption region showing the weak dependence of the built-in potential on minority carriers. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.