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 paper the effect of thermal annealing on the structural and optical properties of Antimony Selenide (Sb2Se3) is investigated. Sb2Se3 powder is evaporated on clean amorphous glass substrates at room temperature under high vacuum pressure (4.5×10-6 mbar) to form thin films. The structural investigation was done with the aid of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The amorphous to polycrystalline transformation of these thin films was shown by X-ray diffraction analysis after thermal annealing. These films' morphology is explained. (UV-Vis ) spectra in ranges from 300 to 1100 nm was used to examine the optical properties of the films .The absorption coefficient and optical energy gap of the investigated films are
... Show MoreThin films of pure tin mono-sulfide SnS with thicknesses of (0.85) μm were prepared by chemical spray pyrolysis technique and annealed for two hours with 673K.The effect of annealing on structural and optical properties for films prepared was studied. X-Ray diffraction analysis showed the polycrystalline with orthorhombic structure. It was found that annealing process increased the intensity of diffraction peaks. Optical properties of all samples were studied by recording the absorption and transmission  
... Show MoreIn this research, the structural and optical measurements were made on the Zinc oxide (ZnO) films prepared by two methods once by using chemical spray pyrolysis technique, and another by using thermal evaporation technique before and after irradiation by Gamma –Ray (γ – rays) from source type (Cs 137) with an energy (0.611)MeV as a function of gamma dose (0.15,0.3 and 0.45) Gy. The thickness of all films prepared by two method was about (300 ± 50) nm. XRD is used to characterize the structural properties, the results demonstrated that all samples prepared by two method before and after irradiation have polycrystalline structure with a preferred orientation (002).Also it showed that the structural properties are weakly
... Show MoreIn this research we studied the structural and optical properties of (CdTe) thin films which have been prepared by thermal evaporation deposition method on the glass substrate at R.T with thickness (450  25) nm., as a function of doping ratio with copper element in (1,3,5) % rate .The structure measurement by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses shows that the single phase of (CdTe) with polycrystalline structure with a preferred orientation [111]. The optical measurement shows that the (CdTe) films have a direct energy gap, and they decrease with the increase of doping ratio reaching to 5% . The optical constants are investigated and calculated, such as absorpti
... Show MoreIn this work, As60Cu40-xSex thin films were synthesized, and the pulsed laser deposition method was used to study the effected partial replacement of copper with selenium. The electrical characteristics and optical characteristics, as indicated by the absorbance and transmittance as a function of wavelength were calculated. Additionally, the energy gap was computed. The electrical conductivity of the DC in the various conduction zones was calculated by measuring the current and voltage as a function of temperature. Additionally, the mathematical equations are used to compute the energy constants, electron hopping distance, tail width, pre-exponential factor, and density of the energy states in variation zones (densities of the energ
... Show MoreIn this work, an experimental research on a low voltage DC magnetron plasma sputtering (0-650) volt is used for coating gold on a glass substrate at a constant pressure of argon gas 0.2 mbar and deposition time of 30 seconds. We focused on the effects of operating conditions for the system such as, electrode separation and sputtering current on coated samples under the influence of magnetic flux. Electron temperature and electrons and ions densities are determined by a cylindrical single Langmuir probe. The results show the sensitivity of electrode separation lead to change the plasma parameters. Furthermore, the surface morphology of gold coated samples at different electrode separation and sputtering current were studied by atomic forc
... Show MoreCadmium Selenide (CdSe) thin films have been deposited on a glass substrate utilizing the plasma DC-sputtering method at room temperature at different deposition time in order to achieve different films thickness, and studied its sensitivity to the carbon monoxide CO gas which are show high response as the film thickness increases, the DC-conductivity and photoconductivity are also studied and which are increased too as the film thickness increases, that indicates the good semiconducting behavior at room temperature and light environments.
The work includes fabrication of undoped and silver-doped nanostructured nickel oxide in form thin films, which use for applications such as gas sensors. Pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) technique was used to fabricate the films on a glass substrate. The structure of films is studied by using techniques of x-ray diffraction, SEM, and EDX. Thermal annealing was performed on these films at 450°C to introduce its effect on the characteristics of these films. The films were doped with a silver element at different doping levels and both electrical and gas sensing characteristics were studied and compared to those of the undoped films. Reasonable enhancements in these characteristics were observed and attributed to the effects of thermal annealing
... Show MoreIn the present work, a D.C. magnetron sputtering system was
designed and fabricated. This chamber of this system includes two
coaxial cylinders made from copper .the inner one used as a cathode
while the outer one used as a node. The magnetic coils located on
the outer cylinder (anode) .The profile of magnetic field for various
coil current (from 2Amp to 14Amp) are shown. The effect of
different magnetic field on the Cu thin films thickness at constant
pressure of 7x10-5mbar is investigated. The result shown that, the
electrical behavior of the discharge strongly depends on the values
of the magnetic field and shows an optimum value at which the
power absorbed by the plasma is maximum. Furthermore, the
pl
A study of the effects of the discharge (sputtering) currents (60-75 mA) and the thickness of copper target (0.037, 0.055 and 0.085 mm) on the prepared samples was performed. These samples were deposited with pure copper on a glass substrate using dc magnetron sputtering with a magnetic flux density of 150 gauss at the center. The effects of these two parameters were studied on the height, diameter, and size of the deposition copper grains as well as the roughness of surface samples using atomic force microscopy (AFM).The results of this study showed that it is possible to control the specifications of copper grains by changing the discharge currents and the thickness of the target material. The increase in discharge curre
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