Study of CdS nanowires for use as window material in CdS/CdTe solar cells

CdS nanostructures were prepared using bismuth nanoparticles as catalyst with sizes of a few nanometers onto a CdS thin layer. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) allowed observing the morphology and size of the obtained nanostructures. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) permits us to determine that the growth mechanism is the vaporliquid-solid and in which part of the nanowire is the bismuth nanoparticle. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra were taken aa a function of temperatures. The PL-emission was very intense and presented two characteristic bands: one narrow peak related with the near band gap emission close to 2.5 eV and other wide band centered at around 2.00 eV which can be associated to defects.