Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 90 (2006) 713–726 Porous alumina templates and nanostructured CdS for thin film solar cell applications Alberto Aguilera, Vivekanand Jayaraman, Srikalyan Sanagapalli, R. Suresh Singh, Visweswaran Jayaraman, Karen Sampson, Vijay P. Singh à Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering, University of Kentucky, 453 Anderson Hall, Lexington, KY 40506, USA Available online 11 May 2005 Abstract Nanostructured CdS was grown by electrodeposition of cadmium sulfide inside a porous alumina template. Uniform pore size and spacing in the template was achieved when the starting material for the template was aluminum foil. Typical pore size was 45 nm. Nanostructured CdS was also deposited by electrodeposition on indium tin oxide (ITO)- coated glass and by solution growth on ITO-coated glass. Schottky diodes were formed on nanocrystalline CdS and the analysis of their current–voltage characteristics yielded a diode ideality factor (n) of 2.6 and a reverse saturation current density (J S ) of 1.00  10 5 A/cm 2 . Corresponding values for the Schottky diode on polycrystalline CdS were 3.4 and 1.93  10 6 A/cm 2 . r 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Porous alumina; Electrodeposition; Nanostructured CdS; Schottky diode 1. Introduction CdTe/CdS and CuInSe 2 /CdS are two leading solar cell configurations for large scale, low cost conversion of sunlight into electricity [1–5]. However, several ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.com/locate/solmat 0927-0248/$ - see front matter r 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2005.04.008 à Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 859 257 3243. E-mail address: vsingh@engr.uky.edu (V.P. Singh).