Resonance Raman spectroscopy as a probe of electrosynthesized materials: principles and selected results Original Research Article

This paper describes the use of resonance Raman spectroscopy to characterize thin films of the II–VI compound semiconductors electrosynthesized on metal surfaces. In the first part of the paper, we describe how resonance Raman experiments can provide information about both the electronic band structure of a material as well as time-dependent phenomena such as charge carrier trapping. In the second part of the paper, we compare the properties of CdS films grown on Au substrates using chemical bath deposition and electrochemical atomic layer epitaxy. In the former case, we find that the films are composed of spherical particles whose diameters depend on the deposition time. In the case of EC-ALE films, on the other hand, we find that CdS grows in a layer-by-layer fashion and that the crystallites are oriented with respect to the substrate.