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.
In this work, p-n junctions were fabricated from highly-pure nanostructured NiO and TiO2 thin films deposited on glass substrates by dc reactive magnetron sputtering technique. The structural characterization showed that the prepared multilayer NiO/TiO2 thin film structures were highly pure as no traces for other compounds than NiO and TiO2 were observed. It was found that the absorption of NiO-on-TiO2 structure is higher than that of the TiO2-on-NiO. Also, the NiO/TiO2 heterojunctions exhibit typical electrical characteristics, higher ideality factor and better spectral responsivity when compared to those fabricated from the same materials by the same technique and with larger particle size and lower structural purity.
Abstract: Tin oxide thin films were deposited by direct current (DC) reactive sputtering at gas pressures of 0.015 mbar – 0.15 mbar. The crystalline structure and surface morphology of the prepared SnO2 films were introduced by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). These films showed preferred orientation in the (110) plane. Due to AFM micrographs, the grain size increased non-uniformly as the working gas pressure increased.
In this work, the effect of annealing temperature on the electrical properties are studied of p-Se/ n-Si solar cell, which p-Se are deposit by DC planar magnetron sputtering technique on crystal silicon. The chamber was pumped down to 2×10−5 mbar before admitting the gas in. The gas was Ar. The sputtering pressure varied within the range of 4x10-1 - 8x10-2mbar by adjusting the pumping speed through the opening control of throttle valve. The electrical properties are included the C-V and I-V measurements. From C-V measurements, the Vbi are calculated while from I-V measurements, the efficiency of solar cell is calculated.
In this research, we studied the structural and optical properties of In2O3 films which prepared by chemical spray pyrolysis method on the glass substrate heated 400 . The effect of annealing temperature 100 for one hour on theses properties are studied. The result of Xray diffraction showed the prepared films were polycrystalline and orientation was (222) before and after annealing, optical properties study for prepared films by using (UV-VIS-NIR) spectrophotometer in the wave length range (300-1100)nm, We found the transmission increases after annealing to 90%. Sensitivity measurement of In2O3 films for gas (CO) and optical detector showed that after annealing at temperature 100 .
Thin films of tin sulfide (SnS) were prepared by thermal evaporation technique on glass substrates, with thickness in the range of 100, 200 and 300nm and their physical properties were studied with appropriate techniques. The phase of the synthesized thin films was confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis. Further, the crystallite size was calculated by Scherer formula and found to increase from 58 to 79 nm with increase of thickness. The obtained results were discussed in view of testing the suitability of SnS film as an absorber for the fabrication of low-cost and non toxic solar cell. For thickness, t=300nm, the films showed orthorhombic OR phase with a strong (111) preferred orientation. The films deposited with thickness < 200nm deviate
... Show MoreIn this work, vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) thin films were prepared using rf magnetron sputtering on silicon wafer and glass substrates from V2O5 target at 200 °C substrate temperature, followed by annealing at 400 and 500 °C in air for 2 h. The prepared thin films were examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), forier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR), UV-visible absorbance, and direct current coductivity to study the effects of annealing temperature on their structural and optical properties. The XRD analysis exhibited that the annealing promoted the highly crystallized V2O5 phase that is highly orientated along the c direction. The crystalline size increased from 22.5 nm to 35.4 nm with increasing the annealing
... Show MoreIn this research, Mn-doped TiO2 thin films were grown on glass, Si and OIT/glass substrates by R.F magnetron sputtering technique with thicknesses (250 nm) using TiO2:Mn target under Ar gas pressure and power of 100 Watt. Through the results of X-ray diffraction, the prepared thin films are of the polycrystallization type after the process of annealing at 600°C for two hour The average crystalline size were 145.32, 280.97 and 261.23 nm for (TiO2:Mn) thin film on glass, Si and OIT/glass substrates respectively, while the measured surface roughness is between 0.981nm and 1.14 nm. The fabricated (TiO2:Mn) thin film on glass sensors have high sensitivity for hydrogen( H2 reducing gas) compared to the sensitivity for hydrogen gas on Si and OIT/
... Show MoreUndoped and Co-doped zinc oxide (CZO) thin films have been prepared by spray pyrolysis technique using solution of zinc acetate and cobalt chloride. The effect of Co dopants on structural and optical properties has been investigated. The films were found to exhibit maximum transmittance (~90%) and low absorbance. The structural properties of the deposited films were examined by x-ray diffraction (XRD). These films, deposited on glass substrates at (400? C), have a polycrystalline texture with a wurtzite hexagonal structure, and the grain size was decreased with increasing Co concentration, and no change was observed in lattice constants while the optical band gap decreased from (3.18-3.02) eV for direct allowed transition. Other parameters
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