Shallow chemical bath deposition of ZnS buffer layer for environmentally benign solar cell devices

R K Choubey, Sunil Kumar and C W Lan

Abstract

Zinc sulfide (ZnS) thin film was grown by a shallow chemical bath deposition (SCBD) technique. In this technique a highly conducting hot plate was used to heat the substrate, while higher thermal gradient was achieved by a shallow bath of the ZnS solution. Consequently, homogeneous nucleation is reduced and quality of ZnS thin films can be improved by shaking. The main advantage of this technique over a traditional one is that the use of solution can be reduced greatly, which is crucial for cost reduction in practice. The effects of shaking on growth kinetics and film properties were investigated by characterizing the as-grown ZnS thin films by x-ray diffraction, transmittance and scanning electron microscopy (SEM)