Photoelectrochemical properties of semiconducting cadmium mercury telluride thin films with bandgaps between 1. 47 and 1. 08 eV

Journal Article · Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 EST 1990 · Journal of the Electrochemical Society; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1149/1.2086235· OSTI ID:5753074

Neumann-Spallart, M; Tamizhamani, G; Levy-Clement, C ^[1]

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1. Lab. de Physique des Solides, CNRS, F-92195 Meudon Cedex (FR)

This paper reports on films of Cd-rich cadmium mercury telluride (Cd{sub {ital x}}HG{sub 1{minus}{ital x}}Te, CMT) 0.1 to 2 {mu}m thick, formed on conducting glass (SnO{sub 2}) and cadmium substrates by electrochemical (potentiostatic) deposition from an aqueous bath. 1 {minus} {ital x} ranged from 0 to 0.25. The photoresponse of CMT electrodes of n- and p-type was investigated in electrolytes containing different redox couples. In 1{ital M} polysulfide solution, the onset of photocurrents was found at {minus}1.1 V vs. SCE, independent of the optical bandgap. In the plateau range of the photocurrent potential curves, quantum yields of charge collection up to 0.45 were measured for Cd{sub 0.9}Hg{sub 0.1}Te. The long-wavelength onset of photoresponse varied with the bandgap (1.47--1.08 eV) for 1 {minus} {ital x} between 0.01 and 0.2. The drawback of the small minority-carrier diffusion length of CMT grown by electrocyrstallization can be circumvented with stacked, semitransparent thin-film electrodes. Experiments show that with such a configuration of thin CMT films grown on transparent substrates, the total photocurrent output can be increased considerably.

• OSTI ID: 5753074
• Journal Information: Journal of the Electrochemical Society; (United States), Vol. 137:11; ISSN 0013-4651
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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PHOTOELECTROCHEMICAL CELLS
CARRIER MOBILITY
CHARGE COLLECTION
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