Nanocrystalline thin films of cadmium sulfide (CdS) have been studied extensively in view of their potential industrial applications. Notwithstanding to this, this material is also important both academically as well as scientifically. In this work, we report the synthesis and morphological evolution of nanocrystalline CdS thin films prepared by chemical bath deposition (CBD) and successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method. The films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) and optical absorption measurements. X-ray diffraction patterns confirm the nanocrystalline nature of the deposited films with hexagonal structure. The average crystallite size of the films prepared by CBD and SILAR technique is found to be 22.50 nm and 33.70 nm, respectively. FE-SEM studies revealed the significant change in the surface morphology of the deposited nanocrystalline CdS thin films with the deposition technique. The optical properties were studied by measuring the absorption spectra. The band gap is 2.36 eV and 2.25 eV for the nanocrystalline CdS thin films prepared by CBD and SILAR technique, respectively.
