CadmiumSulphide (CdS) is an important n-type semiconductor widely used as a windowlayer in thin film photovoltaics
Copper IndiumSelenide, Copper IndiumGallium (di)Selenide, Copper Zinc Tin Sulphide and Cadmium
Telluride (CdTe). Cadmium Sulphide has been deposited using a number of techniques but these techniques can
be slow (chemical bath deposition and Radio Frequency sputtering) or the uniformity and the control of thickness
can be relatively difficult (close space sublimation). In this paper we report on the development of a process
using pulsed Direct Current magnetron sputtering which allows nanometre control of thin film thickness using
time only. The CdS thin films deposited in this process are highly uniformand smooth. They exhibit the preferred
hexagonal structure at room temperature deposition and they have excellent optical properties. Importantly,
the process is highly stable despite the use of a semi-insulating magnetron target. Moreover, the process is
very fast. The deposition rate using 1.5 kW of power to a 6-inch circular magnetron was measured to be greater
than 8 nm/s. This makes the process suitable for industrial deployment.
Funding
The authors are grateful to the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EP/J017361/1) for financial assistance under the Supergen SuperSolar Hub. They are also grateful to the Technology Strategy Board.
History
School
Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering
Research Unit
Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST)
Published in
THIN SOLID FILMS
Volume
574
Pages
43 - 51 (9)
Citation
LISCO, F. ... et al, 2015. High rate deposition of thin film cadmium sulphide by pulsed direct current magnetron sputtering. Thin Solid Films, 574, pp.43-51.
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Acceptance date
2014-11-20
Publication date
2014-11-28
Copyright date
2015
Notes
This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Elsevier under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/