scholarly journals Optical and Structural Characterization of Cd-Free Buffer Layers Fabricated by Chemical Bath Deposition

Coatings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 897
Author(s):  
William Vallejo ◽  
Carlos Diaz-Uribe ◽  
Cesar Quiñones

Chemical bath deposition (CBD) is a suitable, inexpensive, and versatile synthesis technique to fabricate different semiconductors under soft conditions. In this study, we deposited Zn(O;OH)S thin films by the CBD method to analyze the effect of the number of thin film layers on structural and optical properties of buffer layers. Thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and UV-Vis transmittance measurements. Furthermore, we simulated a species distribution diagram for Zn(O;OH)S film generation during the deposition process. The optical results showed that the number of layers determined the optical transmittance of buffer layers, and that the transmittance reduced from 90% (with one layer) to 50% (with four layers) at the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum. The structural characterization indicated that the coatings were polycrystalline (α-ZnS and β-Zn(OH)2 to four layers). Our results suggest that Zn(O;OH)S thin films could be used as buffer layers to replace CdS thin films as an optical window in thin-film solar cells.

2008 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 125-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rong Fuh Louh ◽  
Warren Wu

Chemical bath deposition (CBD) is a fairly simple synthetic route to prepare II-VI semicondutive zinc sulfide thin films, which can be prepared on the flat surface of glass or silicon wafer substrates in the solution containing the precursors of zinc and sulfur ions in terms of ambient conditions of varying acidity. This study particularly aims at the growth dependence and optical property of ZnS thin films in the CBD process by different experiment parameters, whereas we intend to choose suitable types of zinc ionic precursors to be coupled with various CBD parameters such as reaction temperature and time, precursor concentration, types and complexing agents as well as post-deposition heat treatment conditions. Addition of different concentration of ethylenediamine, ammonium sulfate, sodium citrate and hydrazine in the CBD reaction process was used to control the adequate growth rate of ZnS thin films. As a consequence, the rapid thermal annealing was employed to enhance the film uniformity and thickness evenness, transmittance and the energy gap of ZnS samples. The results would lead to a potential application of buffer layer for the Cu (In,Ga)Se2 based thin film solar cells. The analytic instrument including SEM, AFM, UV-VIS were used to examine the CBD-derived nanosized ZnS buffer layers for the thin film solar cells. The ZnS thin films prepared by the chemical bath deposition in this study results in film thickness of 80 ~ 100 nm, high transmittance of 80~85% and the energy gap of 3.89 ~ 3.98 eV.


2013 ◽  
Vol 813 ◽  
pp. 435-439
Author(s):  
Tai Quan

Chemical bath deposited ZnS thin films are promising buffer layers for thin film solar cells, replacing the environmentally hostile CdS buffer layers currently in use. Reflection, absorption and scattering are the three main light loss mechanisms in buffer layers. In this work, improved process conditions, such as magnetic stirring and air annealing, are used in the chemical bath deposition of ZnS thin films to optimize their surface morphology, which effectively reduces light scattering and increases the transmittance, resulting much better ZnS thin films.


MRS Advances ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (37) ◽  
pp. 2635-2640 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adele Moatti ◽  
Reza Bayati ◽  
Srinivasa Rao Singamaneni ◽  
Jagdish Narayan

ABSTRACTBi-epitaxial VO2 thin films with [011] out-of-plane orientation were integrated with Si(100) substrates through TiO2/TiN buffer layers. At the first step, TiN is grown epitaxially on Si(100), where a cube-on-cube epitaxy is achieved. Then, TiN was oxidized in-situ ending up having epitaxial r-TiO2. Finally, VO2 was deposited on top of TiO2. The alignment across the interfaces was stablished as VO2(011)║TiO2(110)║TiN(100)║Si(100) and VO2(110) /VO2(010)║TiO2(011)║TiN(112)║Si(112). The inter-planar spacing of VO2(010) and TiO2(011) equal to 2.26 and 2.50 Å, respectively. This results in a 9.78% tensile misfit strain in VO2(010) lattice which relaxes through 9/10 alteration domains with a frequency factor of 0.5, according to the domain matching epitaxy paradigm. Also, the inter-planar spacing of VO2(011) and TiO2(011) equals to 3.19 and 2.50 Å, respectively. This results in a 27.6% compressive misfit strain in VO2(011) lattice which relaxes through 3/4 alteration domains with a frequency factor of 0.57. We studied semiconductor to metal transition characteristics of VO2/TiO2/TiN/Si heterostructures and established a correlation between intrinsic defects and magnetic properties.


2008 ◽  
Vol 2008 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Hossein Habibi ◽  
Mohammad Khaledi Sardashti

Glass plate-supported nanostructure ZnO thin films were deposited by sol-gel spin coating. Films were preheated at275∘Cfor 10 minutes and annealed at 350, 450, and550∘Cfor 80 minutes. The ZnO thin films were transparent ca 80–90% in visible range and revealed that absorption edges at about 370 nm. Thec-axis orientation improves and the grain size increases which was indicated by an increase in intensity of the (002) peak at34.4∘in XRD corresponding to the hexagonal ZnO crystal. The photocatalytic degradation of X6G an anionic monoazo dye, in aqueous solutions, was investigated and the effects of some operational parameters such as the number of layer and reusability of ZnO nanostructure thin film were examined. The results showed that the five-layer coated glass surfaces have a very high photocatalytic performance.


2010 ◽  
Vol 256 (22) ◽  
pp. 6871-6875 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Zhang ◽  
X.Y. Dang ◽  
J. Jin ◽  
T. Yu ◽  
B.Z. Li ◽  
...  

CrystEngComm ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (38) ◽  
pp. 5735-5743 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ofir Friedman ◽  
Omri Moschovitz ◽  
Yuval Golan

Chemically graded Cd(S,Se) thin film and photovoltaic cell illustration.


2002 ◽  
Vol 730 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Nuñez Rodriguez ◽  
M.T.S. Nair ◽  
P.K. Nair

AbstractAg2S thin films of 90 nm to 300 nm in thickness were deposited at 70°C on glass substrates immersed in a bath mixture containing silver nitrate, sodium thiosulfate and dimethylthiourea. When the films are heated in nitrogen at temperatures 200°C to 400°C, crystallinity is improved and XRD pattern similar to that of acanthite is observed. These films possess electrical conductivity of 10-3 (ohm cm)-1, are photoconductive and exhibit an optical band gap of 1.36 eV. When Ag2S thin film is deposited over a thin film of Bi2S3, also obtained by chemical bath deposition from bismuth nitrate, triethanolamine and thioacetamide, and heated at 300°C to 400°C in nitrogen, a ternary compound, AgBiS2 is formed. This material has an electrical conductivity of 5x10-5 (ohm cm)-1, is photoconductive and possesses optical band gap 0.95 eV.


1989 ◽  
Vol 169 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.M. Hubbard ◽  
P.N. Arendt ◽  
D.R. Brown ◽  
D.W. Cooke ◽  
N.E. Elliott ◽  
...  

AbstractThin films of the Tl‐based superconductors often have relatively poor properties because of film/substrate interdiffusion which occurs during the anneal. We have therefore investigated the use of BaF2 as a diffusion barrier. TICaBaCuO thin films were deposited by dc magnetron sputtering onto MgO <100> substrates, both with and without an evaporation‐deposited BaF2 buffer layer, and post‐annealed in a Tl over‐pressure. Electrical properties of the films were determined by four‐point probe analysis, and compositions were measured by ion‐backscattering spectroscopy. Structural analysis was performed by X‐ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The BaF2 buffer layers were found to significantly improve the properties of the TICaBaCuO thin films.


Molecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (7) ◽  
pp. 1683 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Divya ◽  
S. Arulkumar ◽  
S. Parthiban ◽  
Anandarup Goswami ◽  
Tansir Ahamad ◽  
...  

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin films were rapidly coated on Corning glass substrates from the precursor solution using the wire-bar technique at the room temperature and then post-annealed at 400, 500 and 600 °C for 1 h under atmospheric conditions. The structural, morphological, optical, wettability and photocatalytic properties of the films were studied. X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed the formation of an anatase TiO2 structure irrespective of the post-annealing temperatures. The optical transparency of the films in the visible range was measured to be > 70%. A water contact angle (WCA) of ~0° was observed for TiO2 thin-film, post-annealed at 400 °C and 500 °C. However, WCA of 40.3° was observed for post-annealed at 600 °C. The photocatalytic dye-degradation using post-annealed thin-film was investigated indicating a steady improvement in the dye-degradation percentage (from 24.3 to 29.4%) with the increase of post-annealing temperature. The demonstrated TiO2 thin-films deposited by wire-bar coating technique showed promises for the manufacturing of large-area cost-effective self-cleaning window glass.


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