This study thoroughly investigates the potential of niobium oxide (Nb2O5) thin films as UV-A photodetectors. The films were precisely fabricated using dc reactive magnetron sputtering on Si(100) and quartz substrates, maintaining a consistent power output of 50W while varying substrate temperatures. The dominant presence of hexagonal crystal structure Nb2O5 in the films was confirmed. An increased particle diameter at 150°C substrate temperature and a reduced Nb content at higher substrate temperatures were revealed. A distinct band gap with high UV sensitivity at 350 nm was determined. Remarkably, films sputtered using 50W displayed the highest photosensitivity at 514.89%. These outstanding optoelectronic properties highlight Nb2O5 thin films' potential for use in optoelectronic circuits and UV-A sensors, especially in the visible-blind range. These findings underscore Nb2O5 thin films' promise in advancing UV-A photodetector technology.
Aluminum oxide thin films were prepared by dc reactive sputtering technique using different mixing ratios of argon and oxygen gases (90:10, 70:30, 50:50, 30:70, and 10:90). These films were characterized to introduce their crystalline structures, surface morphology, and elemental composition. A progressive transition occurs from a predominantly amorphous to a highly crystalline Al2O3 film as the oxygen content in the Ar:O2 gas mixture is increased. Increasing the oxygen content leads to a progressive decrease in surface roughness, resulting in smoother and more uniform films with finer granular features. The oxygen-rich environments yield the smoothest surfaces, while argon-rich environments result in significantly rougher surfaces. These f
... Show MoreTitanium dioxide (TiO2) thin films were prepared under different pressures with values (15, 30, 60 and 120) Pa using the DC reactive magnetron homemade system with mixed gases of argon and oxygen in ratio (50:50). The result of X-ray diffraction patterns discovered that the structure of the deposited films was polycrystalline, including the phase of anatase. All the appeared peaks were matched to the planes (101), (004), (105), and (211) of diffracted states. Both the intensities and the number of the appeared peaks are declined according to the increased pressure, and the plane of (101) is be considered the preferential grown plane, it is taking a maximum texture factor. Both the lattice constant and the atomic inter-planer spacing take th
... Show MoreIn this work, spinel ferrites (NiCoFe2O4) were prepared as thin films by dc reactive dual-magnetron co-sputtering technique. Effects of some operation parameters, such as inter-electrode distance, and preparation conditions such as mixing ratio of argon and oxygen in the gas mixture, on the structural and spectroscopic characteristics of the prepared samples were studied. For samples prepared at inter-electrode distance of 5 cm, only one functional group of OH- was observed in the FTIR spectra as all bands belonging to the metal-oxygen vibration were observed. Similarly, the XRD results showed that decreasing the pressure of oxygen in the gas mixture lead to grow more crystal planes in the samples prepare
... Show MoreThe 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.
... Show MoreThis work introduces the synthesis and the characterization of N-doped TiO2 and Co3O4 thin films prepared via DC reactive magnetron sputtering technique. N-doped TiO2 thin films was deposited on indium-tin oxide (ITO) conducting substrate at different nitrogen ratios, then the Co3O4 thin film was deposited onto the N-doped TiO2 layer to synthesize a double-layer TiO2-N/Co3O4 Photoelectrochromic device. Several techniques were used to characterize the produces which are x-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and UV–Vis spectroscopy. The Photoelectrochromic device was characterized by UV–Vis spectroscopy and the results show that the double-layer N-dope
... Show MoreTi6Al4V thin film was prepared on glass substrate by RF
sputtering method. The effect of RF power on the optical properties
of the thin films has been investigated using UV-visible
Spectrophotometer. It's found that the absorbance and the extinction
coefficient (k) for deposited thin films increase with increasing
applied power, while another parameters such as dielectric constant
and refractive index decrease with increasing RF power.
In this work, a novel design for the NiO/TiO2 heterojunction solar cells is presented. Highly-pure nanopowders prepared by dc reactive magnetron sputtering technique were used to form the heterojunctions. The electrical characteristics of the proposed design were compared to those of a conventional thin film heterojunction design prepared by the same technique. A higher efficiency of 300% was achieved by the proposed design. This attempt can be considered as the first to fabricate solar cells from highly-pure nanopowders of two different semiconductors.
In this work, metal oxide nanostructures, mainly copper oxide (CuO), nickel oxide (NiO), titanium dioxide (TiO2), and multilayer structure, were synthesized by the DC reactive magnetron sputtering technique. The effect of deposition time on the spectroscopic characteristics, as well as on the nanoparticle size, was determined. A long deposition time allows more metal atoms sputtered from the target to bond to oxygen atoms and form CuO, NiO, or TiO2 molecules deposited as thin films on glass substrates. The structural characteristics of the final samples showed high structural purity as no other compounds than CuO, NiO, and TiO2 were found in the final samples. Also, the prepared multilayer structures did not show new compounds other than th
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