REVIEW OF BASICS MATERIAL CHARACTERISATION OF II-VI THIN FILM SEMICONDUCTORS FOR USE IN SOLAR CELL FABRICATION

D. G. Diso¹ and A. O. Musa²

¹Department of Physics, Kano University of Science & Technology, Wudil, PMB 3244, Kano-Nigeria.

²Department of Physics, Bayero University Kano, PMB 3011, Kano-Nigeria.

E-mail: dgdiso@yahoo.co.uk

ABSTRACT

Thin film semiconductors based on group II-VI family have been widely studied due to the need to maximize the electrical and optical properties of these materials for use as solar cells. A wide range of analytical techniques are normally used to investigate the layers of these materials. Some of the basic techniques used to characterise the deposited films include photo electrochemical (PEC) studies, optical absorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). This paper reviews in details these techniques and combines relevant results from the literature with more emphasis on CdTe, CdS and ZnTe in which the main author work with.