Publication

Abstract : We studied the structural, elemental composition and micro structural properties of CdS nanocrystalline thin films doped with transition metal Fe, grown by electron beam evaporation on silicon substrates (Si) at room temperature. In this work we have doped different Fe concentration in the range of 5% to 15 %. Fe doping does not lead to the formation of any secondary phase, either in the form of metallic clusters or impurity complexes. The X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) have been used to characterize the Fe doped CdS thin films. XRD analysis shows that Fe doping has a significant effect on crystalline quality and grin size in the films, the average grain size varies from 23 nm to 58 nm, by increasing Fe doping concentration and conformed the nanocrystalline nature of the films. The results obtained from EDS studies did not deviate much from the composition of starting precursor alloys, which indicated that the composition was nearly stoichiometric. From the investigation of surface morphology using AFM, nanocrystalline nature of the films was observed. The films exhibited smooth fine grainy surface at higher Fe doping concentrations.