High transmittance-low resistivity cadmium oxide films grown by reactive pulsed laser deposition

High transmittance, low resistivity, and highly oriented cadmium oxide thin films were prepared by pulsed Nd:YAG laser ablation of Cd target in the presence of oxygen as reactive atmosphere. The structural, optical, and electrical properties of CdO films were dependent on the background oxygen pressure PO^sub 2^. The XRD data show that the grown CdO film at 350 Torr oxygen pressure exhibited preferential orientation along (111) crystal plane. The average transmittance of the CdO films in the visible region was found to be in the range of 65-85% and the corresponding optical energy gap found to be in the range of 2.5-2.8 eV depending on oxygen pressure. The lowest electrical resistivity was found to be 7.56 × 10^sup -3^ Ωcm for CdO film prepared at 350 Torr of oxygen ambient without using post-deposition heat treatment.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]