Cadmium concentration effect on structural, optical and electrical properties of nanostructured CdxZn1-xO thin films

The nanostructured CdxZn1-xO (x = 0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1) thin films were synthesized on glass substrates via Successive Ionic Layer Adsorption and Reaction (SILAR) method. To investigate the effect of cadmium (Cd) concentration (x) on the characteristics the films, the synthesized films were characterized through X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV–visible spectroscopy and dc-electrical measurements. The XRD results showed that all the films exhibited polycrystalline nature and that the crystal structure changed from hexagonal wurtzite (ZnO) to cubic (CdO) structure with increasing Cd concentration (x) in the films. The energy bandgap values decreased from 3.30 to 2.22 eV with Cd concentration (x). The refractive index (n) and dielectric constants (εo, ε∞) values were calculated using optical data. The nanostructured CdxZn1-xO thin films were found to be very sensitive to light. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.