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 gas sensing properties of Co3O4and Co3O4:Y nano structures were investigated. The films were synthesized using the hydrothermal method on a seeded layer. The XRD, SEM analysis and gas sensing properties were investigated for Co3O4and Co3O4:Y thin films. XRD analysis shows that all films are polycrystalline in nature, having a cubic structure, and the crystallite size is (11.7)nm for cobalt oxide and (9.3)nm for the Co3O4:10%Y. The SEM analysis of thin films obviously indicates that Co3O4possesses a nanosphere-like structure and a flower-like structure for Co3O4:Y.The sensitivity, response time and recovery time to a H2S reducing gas were tested at different operating
... Show MoreThis work used the deposition method to synthesize nickel oxide nanoparticles. The materials mainly used in this study were nickel sulfate hexahydrate (as a precursor) and NaOH (as a precipitant). The properties of the nanopowder were characterized by XRD, FE-SEM, EDX, and VSM. The obtained results confirmed the presence of nickel oxide nanoparticles with a face-centered cubic (FCC) structure with a lattice constant (a=4.17834 Å). Scherer and Williamson-Hall equations were used to calculate the crystallite size of about (30.5-35.5) nm. The FE-SEM images showed that the particle shape had a ball-like appearance with a uniform and homogeneous distribution and confirmed that the particles were within the nanoscale. The presence of oxygen a
... Show MoreThin film technology is one of the most important technologies
that have contributed to the development of semiconductors and their
applications in several industrial fields. The Iron Oxides (Fe20) and
(Co3O4) thin films and their applications are of importance, in that these
two materials are considered as important industrial materials, and used
in spectrally selective coating, temperature sensors, resistive heaters, and
photo cells.
Thin films of Iron Oxide (Fe20,), Cobalt Oxide (Co304) and
their mixtures in different ratios (75:25, 50:50, 25:75) were prepared by
the method of chemical spray pyrolysis deposition at different thicknesses
(77s t S200) nm on cover-glass substrates: thickness of (1) mm at
The nonlinear optical properties response of nematic liquid crystal (6CHBT) and the impact of doping with two kinds of nanoparticles; Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles and SbSI ferroelectric nanoparticles have been studied using the non-linear dynamic method through z-scan measurement technique. This was achieved utilizing CW He-Ne laser. The pure LC and magnetic LC nanoparticle composite samples had a maximum absorption while the ferroelectric LC nanoparticle composite had a minimum absorption of the incident light. The nonlinear refractive index was positive for the pure LC and the rod-like ferronematic LC composite samples, while it was negative for the ferroelectric LC composite. The studying of the nonlinear optical
... Show MoreTitanium dioxide (TiO2) Nano powder has been synthesized by hydrothermal method. The reaction took place between titanium tetrachloride (TiCI4) and mixture solution consisted of deionized water and ethanol, in the ratio (3:7) respectively. Structure and surface morphology of TiO2 Nano powder at different annealing temperatures in the range 200-800°C for 120 min were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), FT-IR and UV/visible spectroscopy measurements. The results show that with an increase in annealing temperature, the value of the intensity of (110) peak for rutile phase increases while the value of the full-width at half maximum (FWHM) decreases, and the band gap de
... Show MorePolyaniline (PANI) polymer was successfully prepared by the chemical oxidation method at 0 oC. Polyaniline-nano grapheme (GN) powder nanocomposites were prepared by the addition of GN with different weight ratios (0.1, 1, 5, and 10 g wt. %) during the polymerization of PANI. It was found that the polymerization reaction of poly-aniline was exothermic. The effect of adding nano-graphene powder during polymerization process on the time and temperature of the reaction was studied. The resulting polymer was diagnosed using several methods, including Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and UV-VIS spectrophotometry. The results of FTIR demonstrated a shift to higher wave numbers in the peaks of nanocomposites, due
... Show MoreThe effects of BaCl2 dopant on the optical properties of poly (vinyl alcohol) have been investigated. Pure and BaCl2 doped PVA films were prepared using solvent casting method. These films were characterized using UV/VIS technique in order to estimate the kind of transition which was found to be indirect transition. The value of the optical energy gap was decrease with increasing dopant concentration.
Refractive index, extinction coefficient and Urbach tail have been also investigated; it was found that all the above parameters affects by doping.