Characteristics of CdTe films of different compositions fabricated by CMBD

CdTe films with near stoichiometric compositions and cadmium-rich compositions were fabricated by a novel low-cost chemical molecular beam deposition (CMBD) technique at atmospheric pressure under hydrogen or nitrogen gas flow. X-ray diffraction analysis and scanning electron microscopy studies show different grain growth by CMBD depending on the composition of samples. Those grown with cadmium rich compositions were of poor quality with large discontinuous island structures. On the other hand, samples grown with near stoichiometric compositions were polycrystalline with large grain size and uniform thickness. Additionally, films grown under nitrogen flow contained a cadmium tellurium oxide phase while those grown under hydrogen did not.