Preparation and characterization of pulse-plated CdSe films

Pulse deposition at room temperature was applied to obtain CdSe thin films from an aqueous bath consisting of CdSO4 and SeO2 on titanium substrates, employing a range of current densities from 80 - 550 mA cm-2. The films were polycrystalline with a hexagonal structure. The pulse deposited films were observed to show greater uniformity and large grain sizes than the conventionally deposited ones. The films, heat-sensitized and vacuum annealed, showed a flat-band potential of -1.17 V (SCE) and a high energy conversion efficiency of 6.3% at 60 mW cm2 in polysulphide redox after photoetching. The optical band gap was 1.7 eV.

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