On the yellow-band emission in CdS films

CdS polycrystalline thin films were prepared by the chemical bath deposition (CBD) method on glass substrates. X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies show that the films grow in the cubic zinc-blende crystalline phase. Upon thermal annealing (TA) in Ar+S₂ flux at normal pressure in the temperature range 240–510 °C, the evolution of the transformation into the hexagonal wurtzite phase is observed. This hexagonal crystalline structure is the stable phase. From XRD diagrams the phase transition can be appreciated to occur upon TA at approximately 300 °C. Photoluminescence (PL) data prove that the green-emission band is present for well-defined phases – cubic or hexagonal ones. A second band located at 2.2 eV appears for samples near the transition region. This band at 2.2 eV, called the yellow band, has already been reported to be associated with interstitial Cd atoms. A model for this yellow-band-mechanism formation, arising during the phase transformation, has been proposed based on Frenkel-pair creation. Received: 27 June 2000 / Accepted: 19 December 2000 / Published online: 23 March 2001