Deep levels in the band gap of CdTe films electrodeposited from an acidic bath—PICTS analysis

The deep traps detected in a CdTe thin film electrodeposited from an acidic bath are discussed. CdTe thin films were developed on flexible metallic substrates by electro deposition. The films were nearly stiochiometric, highly uniform and exhibit good crystallinity. The films were characterized using XRD, SEM, AUGER and AFM. The crystallites exhibited a strong preference for the (1 1 1) plane. The grain size of the film was in the range 0.2–0.4 μm. The photoinduced current transient spectroscopic technique was effectively used to identify the electron and hole traps. Two hole traps and one electron trap was detected. The activation energies of those deep traps were 0.37 and 0.42 eV for the hole traps and 0.41 eV for the electron trap.