Electrical conduction mechanism in nanocrystalline CdTe (nc-CdTe) thin films

The present paper reports the electrical characterization of nc-CdTe thin films in different temperature ranges. Thin films of nc-CdTe are deposited on the glass substrates by Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) using the Inert Gas Condensation (IGC) method. The Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) studies are made on the CdTe nanocrystals. The surface morphology and structure of the thin films are studied by the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) measurements. Dark conductivity measurements are made on the nc-CdTe thin films in the temperature range 110-370 K in order to identify the conduction mechanism in this temperature range. The obtained results reveal three distinct regions at high, low, and sufficiently low temperature regions with decreasing activation energies. The analysis of the high temperature conductivity data is based on the Seto's model of thermionic emission. At very low temperatures, dc conductivity (σ ) obeys the law: lnσT ∝T , indicating variable-range hopping in localized states near the Fermi level. The density of the localized states N(E ) and various other Mott's parameters like the degree of disorder (T ), hopping distance (R), and hopping energy (W) near the Fermi level are calculated using dc conductivity measurements at low temperatures. Carrier type, carrier concentration, and mobility are determined from the Hall measurements. The transient photoconductivity decay measurements are performed on the nc-CdTe thin films at different intensities in order to know the nature of the decay process. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.