Highly oriented CdS films deposited by an ammonia-free chemical bath method

Abstract In this work we report an ammonia-free chemical bath method to deposit highly oriented CdS films on glass substrates. The method is based in the substitution of ammonia by sodium citrate as the complexing agent of cadmium ions in the reaction solution. We compared the physical properties of the CdS films obtained by this method to those of CdS films obtained by a traditional method which uses the thiourea–ammonia system. We found that [0 0 2] crystalline orientation is higher in the films obtained by the ammonia-free method than in the ones obtained by the traditional method.