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.
This research focuses on the synthesis of carbon nanotube (CNT) and Poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) (pristine polymer) with Ag doped (CNT/ P3HT@Ag) nanocomposite thin films to be utilised in various practical applications. First, four samples of CNT solution and different ratios of the polymer (P3HT) [0.1, 0.3, 0.5, and 0.7 wt.%] are prepared to form thin layer of P3HT@CNT nanocomposites by dip-coating method of Ag. To investigate the absorption and conductivity properties for use in various practical applications, structure, morphology, optical, and photoluminescence properties of CNT/P3HT @Ag nanocomposite are systematically evaluated in this study. In this regard, the UV/Vis/NIR spectrophotometer in the wavelength range of 350 to 7
... Show MoreThin film solar cells are preferable to the researchers and in applications due to the minimum material usage and to the rising of their efficiencies. In particular, thin film solar cells, which are designed based one transition metal chalcogenide materials, paly an essential role in solar energy conversion market. In this paper, transition metals with chalcogenide Nickel selenide termed as (NiSe2/Si) are synthesized. To this end, polycrystalline NiSe2 thin films are deposited through the use of vacuum evaporation technique under vacuum of 2.1x10-5 mbar, which are supplied to different annealing temperatures. The results show that under an annealed temperature of 525 K,
... Show MoreIn this work, the structure properties of nano Lead sulfide PbS thin films are studied. Thin samples were prepared by pulse laser deposition and deposited on glass substrates at wavelength 1064nm wavelength with a various laser energies (200,300,400,500)nm. The study of atomic force microscope (AFM) and X-ray diffraction as well as the effect of changing the laser energy on the structural properties has been studied. It has been observed that the membrane formed is of the polycrystalline type and the predominant phase is the plane (111) and (200). The minimum grain size obtained was 16.5 nm at a laser energy about 200 mJ. The results showed that thin films of average granular sizes (75 nm) could be prepared.As for the optical properties,
... Show MoreNanoparticles of Pb1-xCdxS within the composition of 0≤x≤1 were prepared from the reaction of aqueous solution of cadmium acetate, lead acetate, thiourea, and NaOH by chemical co-precipitation. The prepared samples were characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy(in the range 300-1100nm) to study the optical properties, AFM and SEM to check the surface morphology(Roughness average and shape) and the particle size. XRD technique was used to determine the crystalline structure, XRD technique was used to determine the purity of the phase and the crystalline structure, The crystalline size average of the nanoparticles have been found to be 20.7, 15.48, 11.9, 11.8, and 13.65 nm for PbS, Pb0.75Cd0.25S,
... Show MoreIndium oxide In2O3 thin films fabricated using thermal evaporation of indium metal in vacuum on a glass substrate at 25oC using array mask, after deposition the indium films have been subjected to thermal oxidation at temperature 400 °C for 1h. The results of prepared Indium oxide reveal the oxidation method as a strong effect on the morphology and optical properties of the samples as fabricated. The band gap (Eg) of In2O3 films at 400 °C is 2.7 eV. Then, SEM and XRD measurements are also used to investigate the morphology and structure of the indium oxide In2O3 thin films. The antimicrobial activity of indium oxide In2O3 thin films was assessed against gram-negative bacterium using inhibition zone of bacteria which improved higher ina
... Show MoreIn this research, non-thermal plasma system of argon gas is designed to work at normal atmospheric pressure and suitable for work in medical and biotechnological applications. This technique is applied in the treatment of the Staphylococcus epidermidis bacteria and show the role of the flow rate of Argon gas on the killing rate of bacteria, and it obtained a 100 % killing rate during the time of 5 minutes at the flow Argon gas of 5 liters/ min.
The electronic properties and Hall effect of thin amorphous Si1-xGex:H films of thickness (350 nm) have been studied such as dc conductivity, activation energy, Hall coefficient under magnetic field (0.257 Tesla) for measuring carrier density of electrons and holes and Hall mobility as a function of germanium content (x = 0–1), deposition temperature (303-503) K and dopant concentration for Al and As in the range (0-3.5)%. The composition of the alloys and films were determined by using energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).
This study showed that dc conductivity of a-Si1-xGex:H thin films is found to increase with increasing Ge content and dopant concentration, whereas conductivity activati
Diamond-like carbon, amorphous hydrogenated films forms of carbon, were pretreated from cyclohexane (C6H12) liquid using plasma jet which operates with alternating voltage 7.5kv and frequency 28kHz. The plasma Separates molecules of cyclohexane and Transform it into carbon nanoparticles. The effect of argon flow rate (0.5, 1 and 1.5 L/min) on the optical and chemical bonding properties of the films were investigated. These films were characterized by UV-Visible spectrophotometer, X-ray diffractometer (XRD) Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The main absorption appears around 296, 299 and 309nm at the three flow rate of argon gas. The value of the optical energy gap is 3.37, 3.55 and 3.68 eV at a different flow rate o
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