An effect of Ar+ ion irradiation on structural and optical properties of electron beam evaporated Cadmium Telluride thin films

CdTe thin films were prepared using e-beam evaporation technique. The prepared films were irradiated by Ar+ ion at different fluency using Multipurpose Al probe as insitu. This could be also used for ion bombardment for cleaning the substrate prior to coating. The prepared and ion irradiated films were confirmed as polycrystalline nature with X-ray technique. From the results, Ar+ ion irradiation enhanced the (111) orientation of CdTe crystals. A considerable modification on structural parameters like crystallite size, lattice parameter, internal strain etc. could be observed as a result of high Ar+ ion fluency. The observed bad gap was increased for higher Ar+ ion fluency. It shows the effect of Ar+ ion irradiation in the modifications of optical properties. The observed results were encouraging on the use of simple multipurpose Al probe for Ar+ ion irradiation process as insitu.