Chemical reactivity of CdCl2 wet-deposited on CdTe films studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

The authors use X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to investigate the chemical reactivity of CdTe films exposed to a solution of CdCl2 dissolved in methanol. They show that annealing in vacuum does not instigate a chemical reaction between CdCl2 and CdTe, but that annealing in either He:O2 or pure He leads to the formation of a surface Cl residue comprising Cd, Te, Cl, and O in the form of oxides and oxychlorides. From detailed analysis of X-ray photoelectron data, they propose that CdO, TeO2, TeCl2O are building blocks for the surface Cl residue.