CdSe thin films: morphological, optoelectronic and photoelectrochemical studies

Polycrystalline cadmium selenide (CdSe) thin films have been synthesized at room temperature by using chemical bath deposition method. The synthesized films were characterized by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical absorbance, electrical conductivity, scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, photoluminescence and photoelectrochemical (PEC) techniques. The film of 0.84 μm thickness, deposited on glass substrate showed uniform spherical morphology with an optical band gap of 1.99 eV. The XRD analysis confirmed presence of cubic structure. Scanning electron micrograph shows a typical spherical ball like morphology with large surface area, which is useful for absorption of large solar radiation. The conductivity measurements showed n type semiconducting nature of the film. A PEC cell device fabricated using ‘as deposited’ CdSe film as anode showed a stable conversion efficiency of 0.7 %.