Influence of Mn2+ Magnetic Ions on the Properties of Cd1 – xMnxS Thin Films Synthesized by Chemical Bath Deposition

II-VI semiconductor based ternary CdMnS compound material has received more attention due to its wide area of applications in semiconductor technology. Cd1 – xMnxS (x 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0) thin films were successfully prepared by chemical bath deposition technique on non-conducting glass substrates. Thin films were deposited at a bath temperature of 80 C and pH 11 by using the chemical bath reaction of cadmium chloride (CdCl2) and manganese chloride (MnCl2) with thiourea (NH4)2S in an aqueous solution. Further, the prepared samples were characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, photoluminescence, XRD, SEM and EDAX to study the optical, structural, surface, and chemical properties. Effect of Mn2+ ions on the film thickness of Cd1 – xMnxS films was investigated using weight difference technique. The film thickness of Cd1 – xMnxS films decreases as Mn2+ ions increase in the bath solution. The polycrystalline nature with hexagonal and cubic structures of the as-deposited films was confirmed by XRD. The band gap value of the deposited films was observed to increase with increasing Mn2+ ion concentration, this might be ascribed to the fact that Cd atom was substituted by Mn atom in the CdS structure. EDAX analysis confirmed the deposition of Cd, Mn and S elements in the films. Photoluminescence spectra of Cd1 – xMnxS with different values of the composition parameter x exhibited two emission peaks with different intensities. The measurement of the electrical resistivity of Cd1 – xMnxS films was performed at room temperature using two probe methods. The variation in electrical resistivity values with compositional parameters was discussed based on deposition parameters. The investigated polycrystalline Cd1 – xMnxS thin films show promising technological applications in semiconductor industry