Structural, optical and electrical properties of CdO/Cd(OH)2 thin films grown by the SILAR method

Successive Ionic Layer Adsorption and Reaction (SILAR) was used to form Cd(OH)₂ thin films from aqueous cadmium–ammonia complex on glass substrates at room temperature and the thermal annealing effect on thin films was studied. The as-deposited films were annealed at 200, 300 and 400 °C for 1 h in an oxygen atmosphere for conversion from Cd(OH)₂ to CdO and change in the structural, optical and electrical properties of the films and the effect of the light on the electrical properties of the films were investigated. The structural and surface morphological properties of the films were studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It was found that Cd(OH)₂ phase is converted into the cubic CdO films by annealing. The band gap energy values of films decreased from 3.59 to 2.13 eV through increasing annealing temperature. It was found that the current increased with increasing light intensity and CdO films were more conductive than the as-deposited films.