The influence of the reaction gas composition during the DC magnetron sputtering process on the structural, chemical and optical properties of Ce-oxide thin films was investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies confirmed that all thin films exhibited a polycrystalline character with cubic fluorite structure for cerium dioxide. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses revealed that cerium is present in two oxidation states, namely as CeO2 and Ce2O3, at the surface of the films prepared at oxygen/argon flow ratios between 0% and 7%, whereas the films are completely oxidized into CeO2 as the aforementioned ratio increases beyond 14%. Various optical parameters for the thin films (including an optical band gap in the range of 2.25–3.1 eV) were derived from the UV–Vis reflectance. A significant change in the band gap was observed as oxygen/argon flow ratio was raised from 7% to 14% and this finding is consistent with the high-resolution XPS analysis of Ce 3d that reports a mixture of Ce2O3 and CeO2 in the films. Density functional theory (DFT+U) implemented in the Cambridge Serial Total Energy Package (CASTEP) was carried out to simulate the optical constants of CeO2 clusters at ground state. The computed electronic density of states (DOSs) of the optimized unit cell of CeO2 yields a band gap that agrees well with the experimentally measured optical band gap. The simulated and measured absorption coefficient (α) exhibited a similar trend and, to some extent, have similar values in the wavelength range from 100 to 2500 nm. The combined results of this study demonstrate good correlation between the theoretical and experimental findings.
The synthesis of new substituted cobalt Phthalocyanine (CoPc) was carried out using starting materials Naphthalene-1,4,5, tetracarbonic acid dianhydride (NDI) employing dry process method. Metal oxides (MO) alloy of (60%Ni3O4 40%-Co3O4 ) have been functionalized with multiwall carbon nanotubes (F-MWCNTs) to produce (F-MWCNTs/MO) nanocomposite (E2) and mixed with CoPc to yield (F-MWCNT/CoPc/MO) (E3). These composites were investigated using different analytical and spectrophotometric methods such as 1H-NMR (0-18 ppm), FTIR spectroscopy in the range of (400-4000cm-1), powder X-rays diffraction (PXRD, 2θ o = 10-80), Raman spectroscopy (0-4000 cm-1), and UV-Visib
... Show MoreIn this work, thin films of undoped and Al-doped CdO with (0.5, 1 and 2) wt.% were prepared by using thermal vacuum evaporation on glass substrate at room temperature. The optical absorption coefficient (α) of the films was determined from transmittance spectra in the range of wavelength (400-1100) nm. The spectral transmission and the optical energy band gap decrease from 75% and 2.24 eV to 20% and 2.1 eV respectively depending upon the Al content in the films, also our studies include the calculation of the optical constants (refractive index, extinction coefficient, real and imaginary part of dielectric constant) as a function of photon energy. It is evaluated that the optical band gap of
... Show MoreThe effect of 0.662MeV gamma radiation on the optical properties of the CdTe thin films was studied. 300nm thickness of CdTe samples were irradiated with doses (10, 20, 30,60krad) in room temperature. The absorption spectra for all the samples were recorded using UV- Visible spectrometer in order to calculate the energy gap, width of localized states and optical constants(refractive index, extinction coefficient, real and imaginary parts of dielectric constant). The optical energy gap was found to decrease from (1.53 to 1.48 eV), while the width of localized states increased from (1.34 to 1.49 eV) with the increasing of radiation dose. The behavior of energy gap with the irradiation dose makes the material a good candidate for dosimetry
... Show MoreWe have studied the synthesis environment of ambient pressure silica aerogels influence on their resulting morphological and optical properties. Transparent nanoporous silica aerogel was synthesized at ambient pressure using tetraethylorthosilicate precursor via a sol-gel process. Effect of drying control chemical additives and catalyst on physical properties was investigated. Trimethylchlorolsilane was employed as a hydrophobic reagent in the surface modification process. All aerogel samples were prepared utilizing a subcritical procedure under reactant pH fixed at 8.3, using just ammonium hydroxide or together with ammonium fluoride as catalyst. The effects catalyst types as well as drying control chemical additives on the physical pro
... Show MoreUndoped and Al-doped CdO thin films have been prepared by vacuum thermal evaporation on glass substrate at room temperature for various Al doping ratios (0.5, 1 and 2)wt.% . The films are characterized by XRD and AFM surface morphology properties. XRD analysis showed that CdO:Al films are highly polycrystalline and exhibit cubic crystal structure of lattice constant averaged to 0.4696 nm with (111) preferred orientation. However, intensity of all peaks rapidly decreases which indicates that the crystallinity decreases with the increase of Al dopant. The grain size decreases with Al content (from 60.81 to 48.03 nm). SEM and AFM were applied to study the morphology an
... Show MoreIodine-doped polythiophene thin films are prepared by aerosol assisted plasma jet polymerization at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. The doping of iodine was carried out in situ by employing iodine crystals in thiophene monomer by weight mixing ratios of 1%, 3%, 5% and 7%. The chemical composition analyses of pure and iodine-doped and heat-treated polythiophene thin films are carried out by FTIR spectroscopy studies. The optical band gaps of the films are evaluated from absorption spectrum studies. Direct transition energy gaps are determined from Tauc plots. The structural changes of polythiophene upon doping and the reduction of optical band gap are explained on the basis of the results obtained from FTIR spectroscopy, UV–V
... Show MorePure cadmium oxide films (CdO) and doped with zinc were prepared at different atomic ratios using a pulsed laser deposition technique using an ND-YAG laser from the targets of the pressed powder capsules. X-ray diffraction measurements showed a cubic-shaped of CdO structure. Another phase appeared, especially in high percentages of zinc, corresponding to the hexagonal structure of zinc. The degree of crystallinity, as well as the crystal size, increased with the increase of the zinc ratio for the used targets. The atomic force microscopy measurements showed that increasing the dopant percentage leads to an increase in the size of the nanoparticles, the particle size distribution was irregular and wide, in addition, to increase the surfac
... Show MorePure Cu (CZTSe) and Ag dopant CZTSe (CAZTSe) thin films with Ag content of 0.1 and 0.2 were fabricated on coring glass substrate at R.T with thickness of 800nm by thermal evaporation method. Comparison between the optical characteristics of pure Cu and Ag alloying thin films was done by measuring and analyzing the absorbance and transmittance spectra in the range of (400-1100)nm. Also, the effect of annealing temperature at 373K and 473K on these characteristics was studied. The results indicated that all films had high absorbance and low transmittance in visible region, and the direct bang gap of films decreases with increasing Ag content and annealing temperature. Optical parameters like extinction coefficientrefractive index, and
... Show MoreTiO2 thin films were deposited by Spray Pyrolysis with thickness ((350±25) nm) onto glass substrates at (350°C), and the film was annealed at temperatures (400 and 500)°C. The structural and morphological properties of the thin films (TiO2) were investigated by X-ray diffraction, Field emission scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscope. The gas sensor fabricated by evaporating aluminum electrodes using the annealed TiO2 thin films as an active material. The sensitivity of the sensors was determined by change the electrical resistance towards NO2 at different working temperatures (200