Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 59 (1999) 99}114

Structural and opto-electronic properties

of electrodeposited CdTe on stainless steel foil
Xavier Mathew*, P.J. Sebastian, A. Sanchez, J. Campos
Solar Materials Department, Solar-Hydrogen-Fuel Cell-Group, Centro de Investigacion en Energia- UNAM,
62580 Temixco, Morelos, Mexico

Abstract

The electrodeposition kinetics of thin "lm 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 trans-
port 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 di!erent wavelengths and with
di!erent white light intensities. The built-in potential at di!erent wavelengths is almost
constant in the absorption region showing the weak dependence of the built-in potential on
minority carriers.  1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: CdTe; Electrodeposition; I}<; C}<; Spectral response; SCLC; Bound electron

1. Introduction

In the near future, thin "lm solar cell modules based on lightweight substrates will
gain considerable interest in both space and terrestrial applications. Thin "lm
polycrystalline photovoltaics (PV) have been aimed at lower-cost market where lower
e$ciency is acceptable [1]. The conventional thin "lm solar cells are usually manufac-
tured on glass substrates and o!er no weight advantage over single crystal solar cells.
Producing thin "lm solar cells on thin metal foil substrates (0.05 mm or fewer
thickness) however o!ers several advantages for space as well as terrestrial applica-
tions.

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: xm@mazatl.cie.unam.mx (X. Mathew)

0927-0248/99/$ - see front matter  1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 2 7 - 0 2 4 8 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 0 3 5 - 5
100 X. Mathew et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 59 (1999) 99}114

Since solar cells can be as thin as 5 lm and the metal foil support is of the order of
0.05 mm thick, weight savings are signi"cant. One of the main di$culties in the
manufacturing of high-e$ciency thin "lm solar cells is the use of glass substrate. To
obtain high grain growth in these cells, they are annealed at 5003C or higher which is
near the softening temperature of ordinary soda-lime glass and glass breakage
is a major problem during manufacture. Again it is di$cult to obtain uniform
properties for solar cells mounted on a poor thermal conductor such as glass [2].
Thus, thin "lm PV modules based on metal foils can both reduce weight and promise
e$cient cells.
CdTe and CuIn(Ga)Se are the two leading photovoltaic materials for the fabrica-

tion of thin "lm solar cells. Due to the optimum band gap of 1.5 eV and high optical
absorption coe$cient at the band edge the CdTe is a favorable material for thin "lm
solar cells. Over the last two decades considerable work has been done on the
preparation and characterization of the polycrystalline CdTe [2}17]. Most of these
studies were carried out with "lms prepared on conducting glass substrates and
metallic coatings on glass. These "lms were prepared by a variety of techniques such
as sputtering, close spaced sublimation (CSS), screen printing, chemical vapor depos-
ition and electrodeposition. Films prepared by CSS had the highest reported e$ciency
of 15.8% [15]. Electrodeposition is an economic, simple and successful method for
preparing large area thin "lms. The reported e$ciencies for solar cells based on
electrodeposited CdTe grown on conducting glass substrates is 11}14% [14,18,19].
In recent years electrodeposited CdTe "lms grown onto stainless steel, nickel and
molybdenum substrates have been reported [2,17,20,21]. The reported e$ciency for
a solar cell based on metallic substrate is 5.3% [21]. In this paper we are reporting
some preliminary results regarding the electrodeposition, structure, composition,
optical and optoelectronic properties of electrodeposited CdTe thin "lms grown onto
stainless steel foils.

2. Experimental

The electrodeposition was done in a 1.5-l beaker having a vapor tight Te#on lid.
The electrolyte was a 1 M CdSO containing 100 lM TeO . The solution was
 
continuously stirred with a Te#on coated magnetic rod at the rate of 50}100 rpm and
the temperature of the electrolyte was maintained at 80}903C. The "lms were depos-
ited at a potential of !570 to !590 mV w.r.t. a saturated Ag/AgCl (SSSC) reference
electrode. The counter electrode was a pure platinum wire and 0.05 mm thick stainless
steel foils (chemically and ultrasonically cleaned) were used as the working electrode.
Prior to the addition of TeO the electrolyte was puri"ed at 10 mV a potential more

positive than the deposition potential of cadmium. The latter was determined by
voltametry. The mass of the deposits were measured and later used to calculate the
thickness of the "lms using a density of 5.9 g/cm for CdTe.
The "lms were annealed at 3003C in air and in argon. The transmittance and
re#ectance spectra were obtained with a Shimadzu UV-3101PC double beam spectro-
photometer. For transmittance measurements the "lms were successfully transferred
 X. Mathew et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 59 (1999) 99}114 101

on to glass slides using a transparent glue. Optical measurements revealed that the
glue is highly transparent with the refractive index matching with that of glass. The
Schottky barrier devices were prepared by sputtering a 13 nm thin layer of gold over
the "lms. For the device preparations the "lms were used as such without any surface
modi"cations. The photocurrent spectrum in the 350}1000 nm range was obtained
using a Spex monochromator (1681 Minimate-2) with a 100 W-tungsten halogen
lamp. The signal was fed into an X}> recorder through an SR530 lock-in ampli"er
and later digitized with an electronic digitizer. The activation energy measurements
were done with a locally designed cryostat and an HP 4140B pA/DC voltage source.
The I}< and C}< characteristics were recorded using an HP 216 computer. The
structural properties were studied by X-ray di!raction measurements (Siemens D-500)
using Cu K radiation with j"1.5405 As , meanwhile, the "lm morphology was
a
analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Electrodeposition

The electrodeposition kinetics of the CdTe from an aqueous solution containing

CdSO , TeO and H SO has been reviewed [3,22]. Deposition of CdTe can occur
   
through two possible ways: Cd> ion can react with H Te produced during the

reduction of HTeO> there by yielding CdTe, or tellurium deposited on the working

electrode can react with Cd> to give CdTe. In either case, the deposition process
occurs through the transfer of six electrons. The recent studies report a deposition
potential of !550 to !580 mV with respect to the SSSC electrode for the deposition
of CdTe [20].
The electrodeposition of CdTe onto #exible stainless steel (SS) substrates was
studied by monitoring the cell current as a function of the deposition time. In all cases
it was found that at the initial stage of deposition the cell current is high and rapidly
decays to a level determined by the concentration of the HTeO> ions. This can be

explained as follows: at the initial stage, when the nucleation of the CdTe on the
substrate is not complete, the current is high, and once the substrate surface has been
passivated with layers of CdTe, the rate of reaction depends on the availability of free
tellurium ions. So after the initial fast decay, the deposition is controlled by the
di!usion of tellurium [22].
Fig. 1 shows an experimental curve for CdTe deposited on SS substrate. During this
deposition no additional Te was supplied and the solution was being depleted of
tellurium with time as is evident from the "g. After the initial decay the current falls
exponentially with time. Using Faraday's law and the total charge, the number of
transferred electrons (N) can be determined. The calculation gave N"7.5. But if the
charge is calculated from the area under the straight line extrapolated to t"0, an
N value of 6.2 is obtained, which is close to the predicted value of 6.0. This indicates
that at the initial stage of deposition certain amount of charge #ows, which does not
contribute to the formation of stoichiometric CdTe. The inset of Fig. 1 shows the
102 X. Mathew et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 59 (1999) 99}114

Fig. 1. A typical graph of the cell current against deposition time for CdTe electrodeposition on stainless
steel foil at 853C. The inset shows the deposition curve for a 1.1 lm thick "lm with extra TeO supplied at

t"230 min.

deposition curve for a 1.1 lm thick "lm grown by supplying continuous Te ion for
maintaining high growth rate. This was achieved by adding certain amount of TeO

to the solution during deposition and thus the level of tellurium ion was maintained
such that the cell current never goes below certain level. Upon the addition of an extra
49.68 lM of TeO at time t"230 min an increase in cell current is observed. After

subtracting the initial excess charge which is not contributing to the deposition,
N"6.1 was obtained, in good agreement with the predicted value. We have prepared
 X. Mathew et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 59 (1999) 99}114 103

a good number of "lms on stainless steel foils and observed that in the cases where
tellurium ion was supplemented during deposition the N values are very close to 6.0.
This indicates that for the proper deposition kinetics a minimum amount of tellurium
ion should be present in the solution.

3.2. Structure, morphology and composition

The XRD result displayed in Fig. 2 shows that the electrodeposited CdTe is
polycrystalline in nature with a preferred orientation along the (1 1 1) plane of the
cubic phase. Other XRD re#ection intensities are weak compared to this re#ection.
The SEM picture of the "lm surface (Fig. 3) presents a compact morphology for the
"lm with an average grain size of 0.4 lm. A compositional analysis was performed for
the "lm using an EDAX system attached to the scanning electron microscope.
A picture of the EDAX spectrum is given in Fig. 4, with the "lm composition in atomic
percentages indicated in the graph. The result shows a "lm stoichiometry very close to
the ideal one of 1 : 1.

Fig. 2. The XRD pattern of an as-deposited CdTe "lm on stainless steel substrate.
104 X. Mathew et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 59 (1999) 99}114

Fig. 3. The SEM picture of an as-deposited CdTe "lm surface.

Fig. 4. The EDAX picture giving the composition of the as-deposited CdTe "lm.

3.3. Optoelectronic properties

3.3.1. Refractive index

The relation between absorption coe$cient a and the incident photon energy hl
can be written as [23]
ahl"c (hl!E), (1)
 
where c is a constant and E is the direct band gap.
 
 X. Mathew et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 59 (1999) 99}114 105

The (ahl) is plotted against the photon energy hl and the intercept with the energy
axis gives the edge of the allowed direct transition. The absorption coe$cient of the
"lms were calculated from the transmittance spectra and using the relation [20,24]
Me\?B
" (2)
P!Qe\?B
M"(1!R )(1!R )(1!R ), P"(1!R R ), Q"R R #R R !2R
         
R R ,
 
where R , R and R are the re#ection coe$cients of the air}"lm, "lm}glass and
  
glass}air interfaces, respectively. In cases where a glass slide identical to the one
supporting the "lm is kept in the reference beam compartment, M"(1!R )(1!R )
 
was used. The re#ection coe$cients in the general form are
(n !1)#k (n !n )#k (n !1)
R "  , R "   , R "  , (3)
 (n #1)#k  (n #n )#k  (n #1)
   
where n and n are the refractive indices of "lm and glass, respectively, and
 
k(k"aj/4p) is the extinction coe$cient of the "lm. The band gap calculated for three
"lms 0.57, 0.7 and 1.5 lm thick are 1.512, 1.51 and 1.49 eV, respectively. We have
already reported a very detailed study regarding the e!ect of thickness and annealing
on the band gap of electrodeposited CdTe [25]. The measured dispersion of refractive
index (n) for three "lms with thickness of 0.57, 0.734 and 0.895 lm along with that
of the single crystal is shown in Fig. 5. The single-crystal data were obtained from
Ref. [26]. The n value for the "lms was determined from the superimposed interference
patterns on the transmitted or re#ected spectra. The interference patterns were more
pronounced in the re#ectance spectra than in the transmittance spectra and as a result
the measurements could be extended to much lower wavelengths as is evident from
the inset (a) of Fig. 5. The inset (b) is obtained from transmittance spectra. The
refractive index of the "lm at a wavelength j can be calculated from the positions of
K
the maxima and minima in the interference patterns using the relation
4bdn(j )"mj (m"1,2,2), (4)
K K
where j is the wavelength corresponding to the peak or valley of order m and d is the
K
"lm thickness. The term b"[1!(sinhi/n)] is weak wavelength-dependent para-
meter since the angle of incidence in the re#ectance measurement was only h"53.
The dispersion data of these "lms can be explained well by the classical bound-
electron (BE) dispersion model [27]


1 j 1 1
"  ! , (5)
n!1 e !1 j j
 
where j is a characteristic wavelength associated with the resonance frequency of the

bound electrons and e is the non-dispersive dielectric constant given by

eN j
e "1# #  . (6)
 4pce m
 #
106 X. Mathew et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 59 (1999) 99}114

Fig. 5. The dispersion of refractive index of the as-deposited "lms of various thickness, ; 0.57 lm, O;
0.734 lm, ;; 0.895 lm and *; single crystal. Inset (a); the "t of the experimental data to the bound electron
dispersion formula. ; 0.57 lm, O; 0.734 lm and ;; 0.895 lm thick "lms. Inset (b); the "t of the
experimental data to the bound electron dispersion formula. z; as-deposited, ; air annealed and ; argon
annealed CdTe "lms.

N , m , c, e and e denote, respectively, the concentration of bound electrons,

# # 
e!ective mass of bound electrons, speed of light, electronic charge and permittivity of
free space. Eq. (5) is valid for wavelengths j<j and the extinction coe$cient

k;(n!1). The "t of Eq. (5) to the results in Fig. 5 is shown in the inset (a). The
enhancement in the refractive index at the band edge is very pronounced in this "gure,
 X. Mathew et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 59 (1999) 99}114 107

Table 1
Results obtained from the optical characterization of a 0.7 lm thick CdTe "lm; the parameters are the
characteristics wavelength (j ) associated with the resonance frequency, the non-dispersive optical dielectric

constant (e ), m /N and bound electron mass (m )
 # # #
Film j (nm) e m /N (Kg m\) m (Kg)
  # # #
As-deposited 390.6 6.615 22;10\ 32;10\f
Air annealed 362 6.898 18;10\ 26;10\f
Argon annealed 380.6 7.53 18;10\ 26;10\f

which happens around j"820 nm; corresponding to a transition energy of 1.51 eV.
The "t is very good in the long-wavelength region where the Eq. (5) is valid and the
values of j and e are determined. Knowing the value of e , the ratio of the bound
  
electron e!ective mass to its concentration (m /N ) can be calculated. Taking
# #
N "1.48;10;f, where f is the number of bound electrons per CdTe molecule
#
and taking into account that the number of CdTe molecules per unit volume
calculated from the density is 1.48;10, then the bound electron mass can be
calculated in terms of f. The inset (b) of Fig. 5 shows the "t of Eq. (5) to the dispersion
data obtained from the transmittance spectrum of a 0.7 lm thick "lm annealed for
30 min at 3003C in air and in argon along with the data of the as-deposited "lm. The
"t is very good and the argon-annealed sample shows a higher value for the non-
dispersive dielectric constant; the values of j , e , m /N and m are presented in
  # # #
Table 1.

3.3.2. I}v and c}v characteristics

The I}< and C}< characteristics were studied with an Au/CdTe Schottky diode,
the diode recti"cation factor for an as-deposited "lm measured for 1 Vat 300 K was
about 3;10. From the easy direction of current #ow and using the thermal probe
method the as-deposited "lms were found to be n-type. The dielectric constant e of
P
the "lm was measured at 1 KHz by forming an ohmic contact, the obtained value of
10.08 is in the range of 7}11 reported for CdTe [28]. The capacitance in dark at 300 K
was measured for di!erent biases and the carrier concentration was obtained from
a plot of 1/C against applied bias. The estimated value of N is 2.6;10 cm\.
"
Fig. 6 shows the I}< plot in dark for an as deposited "lm at 300 K for both
polarities. The device area is 0.0288 cm. For forward biases up to 0.3 V the I}<
characteristics follow the standard diode equation
I"I [eO4I2!1]. (7)

The e!ect of device series resistance was neglected and the ideality factor A was
calculated from the "t of the data to Eq. (7) and was found to be 1.5. The transport
mechanism changes to space-charge-limited current conduction (SCLC) at about
0.5 V. We could not observe a sharp dependence of the conventional < law on the
forward current as is evident from the inset of Fig. 6. This suggests that the carrier
108 X. Mathew et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 59 (1999) 99}114

Fig. 6. The I}< characteristics in dark at 300 K of a 0.734 lm thick Au /CdTe Schottky device in forward
(F.B) and reverse (R.B) biases. The device area is 0.0288 cm. The inset is the SCLC dependence of the
forward current.

transport is mediated by a set of traps rather than a discrete trap level in the band gap
[29]. The forward direction was for a positively biased gold electrode.

3.3.3. Activation energy of traps

For voltages where the current becomes proportional to square of voltage the
SCLC equation takes the form [30,31]
9N
I"  Ake<e\#I2, (8)
8N

where N is the e!ective density of states in the conduction band and N is the
 
concentration of the electron trap with activation energy E measured from the edge of

the conduction band. , A, k and e denote, respectively, the "lm thickness, device area,
electron mobility and permittivity of the material. E and N can be determined from
R R
the temperature dependence of the dark current in the SCLC region. The dark current
was measured for three selected biases in the 100}300 K regions. The "t of the
experimental data to Eq. (8) is shown in Figs. 7 and 8. From Fig. 7 it is clear that the
data gives very good "t in three di!erent temperature regions. In the 140}190 K
region the measured activation energy is 0.137 eV, in the 190}220 K region a 0.263 eV
 X. Mathew et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 59 (1999) 99}114 109

Fig. 7. The temperature dependence of space charge limited current for 1.1 V forward bias.

level is detected and a deep level with activation energy 0.5 eV is measured in the
240}300 K range. These measurements were done for a forward bias of 1.1 V and due
to the instability of the devices we were not able to extend our experiments to higher
temperatures. The activation energy (E ) and the concentration (N ) of the detected
 
trapping levels along with some data of the electrodeposited n-CdTe from the
literature are presented in Table 2. In the calculation of N the temperature depend-

ence of mobility was neglected by considering the temperature dependence of
N through the term  and the e!ective electron mass was m*"0.14 m , where
 
m is the free electron mass [17]. The electron mobility used was k"100 cm/Vs,

which is in the range of Hall mobilities reported for electrodeposited CdTe [32].
The deep level detected in the 240}300 K region shows a voltage dependence as
shown in Fig. 8. According to the Poole}Frenkel theory, the decrease in trap energy
can be written as [17]


eg 
E "E !n <, (9)
  4pe e dH
P
110 X. Mathew et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 59 (1999) 99}114

Table 2
Results of the activation energy measurements on a 0.734 lm thick as deposited "lm at 1.1 V forward bias

E (eV) N (cm\)
 
0.5 (0.59) 1.9;10
0.263 6.5;10
0.137 1.0;10
0.55
7;10
0.76 0.14;10

Zero "eld value

Ref. [30]
Ref. [17]

Fig. 8. The voltage dependence of the activation energy (Poole}Frenkal e!ect). The measured values for
E are 0.52, 0.5 and 0.495 eV for applied forward biases 0.8 (-), 1.1() and 1.4 ()V, respectively.


where E denotes the zero "eld value of E , dH is the e!ective thickness of the "lm,
 
g"1 for singly charged and g"2 for doubly charged deep levels and n"2. The
E values calculated from Fig. 8 are 0.52, 0.5 and 0.495 eV for biases 0.8, 1.1 and 1.4 V,

respectively. These values gives an excellent "t to Eq. (9) giving the zero "eld value of
 X. Mathew et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 59 (1999) 99}114 111

Fig. 9. The spectral response of the photocurrent from the device (-) and the built-in potential measured at
di!erent wavelength (O).

the deep level E "0.59 eV. We could not observe such an excellent "t for the other

two shallow levels, however the assignment of these levels are justi"ed since such
shallow levels are reported in the thermally stimulated current spectroscopic (TSCS)
studies [33]. This observation also supports the argument given in Section 3.3.2
regarding the I}< data in the SCLC region. The activation energy of the deep level
and the concentration of traps observed are di!erent from those reported, such
a diversity in results are observed in the literature also. These variations can be due to
the di!erence in preparation conditions and the di!erence in the parameters used such
as carrier mobility and carrier e!ective mass. A more detailed study of the e!ect of
annealing on the activation energy spectrum will be published in a subsequent paper.

3.3.4. Photoresponse
The photocurrent spectrum (not normalized) for a gold-CdTe Schottky diode along
with the built-in potential, q< , measured at various wavelengths are shown in Fig. 9.

112 X. Mathew et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 59 (1999) 99}114

Fig. 10. The dependence of open-circuit voltage on the intensity of illumination. The #ux intensities are in
the order; F1'F2'F3'F4.

The enhancement in the photocurrent at the band edge is very clear from the "gure.
A plot of (Rhl) against hl gives the direct band gap as 1.495 eV. For the determina-
tion of bandgap, the photoresponse system was calibrated with a silicon photodiode
and using the relative responsivity curve of the diode. The transmittance data of
a 13 nm thick gold deposited on a glass slide was also used in the calculation of the
photon #ux. The device was prepared with no intention of studying the cell e$ciency.
The built-in potential, q< , of a typical device was measured in both white light and at

various wavelengths with the help of a lock-in ampli"er. From Fig. 9 it can seen that
the q< remain almost constant in the absorption region of the material, meaning that

there is no strong dependence of the built-in potential with respect to the minority
carriers, which is in good agreement with the Schottky diode theory [34]. Fig. 10
shows a typical photovoltaic behavior I vs. < under di!erent intensities of light. This
 X. Mathew et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 59 (1999) 99}114 113

data was collected with a lock-in ampli"er and a programmable bias source. We can
see that all the curves follow the well know J}< relationship. It can be seen that
the open-circuit voltage shifts to lower values when the intensity of light decreases.
This behavior can be explained if it is taken into account that, for a simple Schottky
barrier with transport by thermoinic emission, the open circuit voltage is given by
[34]


Ak J
< "
# Ln  , (10)
 @ q AH

where
is the barrier height, A is the diode factor, AH is the e!ective-mass modi"ed


Richardson constant and J is the short-circuit current.
1!

4. Conclusions

Electrodeposition is a very convenient method for preparation of thin "lm CdTe on

metallic substrates. 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 0.5 eV deep level shows a voltage
dependence according to the Poole}Frenkel equation. The zero-"eld value of the deep
level is estimated as 0.59 eV. The open-circuit voltage shifts to lower values as the
intensity of illumination decreases; in good agreement with the Schottky barrier
theory.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the help received from Ms. Leticia Ban os in
XRD studies and Mr. Oswaldo Sanchez in SEM-EDAX analysis. This work was
carried out with "nancial assistance from DGAPA-UNAM through the project
IN108198.

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