Microstructure and crystal imperfections of nanosized CdS x Se 1x thermally evaporated thin films Alaa A. Akl a , A. S. Hassanien b,⇑,1 a Physics Department, Faculty of Science in Ad-Dawadmi, Shaqra University, 11911, Saudi Arabia b Engineering Math. and Physics Dept., Faculty of Engineering (Shoubra), Benha University, Egypt article info Article history: Received 29 January 2015 Received in revised form 7 May 2015 Accepted 9 May 2015 Available online 19 May 2015 Keywords: Thin films Physical vapor deposition (PVD) Energy dispersive analysis of X-rays (EDAX) Defects Microstructure abstract Cadmium sulfoselenide CdS x Se 1x thin films were thermally evap- orated onto preheated glass substrates (523 K). The evaporation rate and film thickness were kept constant at 2.5 nm/s and 375 ± 5 nm, respectively. Microstructure and crystal imperfections of deposit CdS x Se 1x thin films were studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive analysis by X-ray (EDAX). XRD analy- sis reveals the formation of films have the semi-crystalline nature and the hexagonal structure with preferential h002i direction. The microstructural parameters such as, lattice parameters, the crystal- lite size (D), microstrain hei, residual internal stress (S), dislocation density (d) and number of crystallite per unit volume (N) were cal- culated and found to be dependent upon the composition. The presence percentage of Cd, S and Se elements in the chalcogenide CdS x Se 1x thin films were estimated by EDAX and a comparative study with other similar samples of the previous literature was discussed. Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Chalcogenide CdS x Se 1x thin films are most promising materials due to the possibility of adjusting and tailoring their electrical properties, especially in the optoelectronics, nonlinear optics and photo http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.spmi.2015.05.011 0749-6036/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: a.s.hassanien@gmail.com (A.S. Hassanien). 1 On leave to: Physics Department, Faculty of Science in Ad-Dawadmi, Shaqra University, 11911, Saudi Arabia. Superlattices and Microstructures 85 (2015) 67–81 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Superlattices and Microstructures journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/superlattices