The effect of substrate rotation rate on physical properties of cadmium telluride films prepared by a glancing angle deposition method

Abstract Physical properties of cadmium telluride thin films, deposited on glass substrates by modified glancing angle deposition (GLAD) technique with various substrate rates of rotation, were investigated in this study. In contrast to obliquely columnar thin films fabricated by the conventional GLAD technique, in which higher columnar angle is coupled to higher degree of porosity, this study introduces obliquely deposited thin films which have packed columnar structures despite their highly tilted columns. Structural and optical properties and surface morphology of the CdTe thin films deposited by this technique were studied using X-ray diffraction, UV–visible spectroscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy.