Fabrication of Nanostructured Cadmium Selenide Thin Films for Optoelectronics Applications

Shahnwaz Hussain; Mazhar Iqbal; Ayaz Arif Khan; Muhammad Nasir Khan; Ghazanfar Mehboob; Sohaib Ajmal; J M Ashfaq; Gohar Mehboob; M Shafiq Ahmed; Said Nasir Khisro; Chang-Jiu Li; Raphael Chikwenze; Sabastine Ezugwu

doi:10.3389/fchem.2021.661723

Fabrication of Nanostructured Cadmium Selenide Thin Films for Optoelectronics Applications

Front Chem. 2021 Apr 7:9:661723. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2021.661723. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
² Department of Physics, University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffarabad, Pakistan.
³ Central Diagnostic Laboratory (CDL), Physics Division, Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (PINSTECH), Islamabad, Pakistan.
⁴ Department of Physics, University of Kotli Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Kotli, Pakistan.
⁵ School of Materials Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China.
⁶ Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences, Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike Ikwo, Abakaliki, Nigeria.
⁷ Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.

Abstract

There is lot of research work at enhancing the performance of energy conversion and energy storage devices such as solar cells, supercapacitors, and batteries. In this regard, the low bandgap and a high absorption coefficient of CdSe thin films in the visible region, as well as, the low electrical resistivity make them ideal for the next generation of chalcogenide-based photovoltaic and electrochemical energy storage devices. Here, we present the properties of CdSe thin films synthesized at temperatures (below 100°C using readily available precursors) that are reproducible, efficient and economical. The samples were characterized using XRD, FTIR, RBS, UV-vis spectroscopy. Annealed samples showed crystalline cubic structure along (111) preferential direction with the grain size of the nanostructures increasing from 2.23 to 4.13 nm with increasing annealing temperatures. The optical properties of the samples indicate a small shift in the bandgap energy, from 2.20 to 2.12 eV with a decreasing deposition temperature. The band gap is suitably located in the visible solar energy region, which make these CdSe thin films ideal for solar energy harvesting. It also has potential to be used in electrochemical energy storage applications.

Keywords: CdSe; chemical bath deposition; electrochemical energy storage; energy materials; optical properties; thin films.