Faculty Publications

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    Preparation and characterization of CdxZn1-xS thin films by spray pyrolysis technique for photovoltaic applications
    (2009) Raviprakash, Y.; Bangera, K.V.; Shivakumar, G.K.
    CdxZn(1-x)S (x = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1) thin films were deposited by the chemical spray pyrolysis technique using a less used combination of chemicals. Depositions were done at 573 K on cleaned glass substrates. The composition, surface morphology and structural properties of deposited films were studied using EDAX, SEM and X-ray diffraction technique. XRD studies reveal that all the films are crystalline with hexagonal (wurtzite) structure and inclusion of Cd into the structure of ZnS improved the crystallinity of the films. In the entire compositions, the (0 0 2) diffraction peak is prominent which gives lattice matching to the chalcogenide semiconductor such as CuInxGa1-xSe2 and CuIn (s1-xSex)2, which are used in photovoltaic devices. The value of lattice constant 'a' and 'c' have been observed to vary with composition from 0.382 to 0.415 nm and 0.625 to 0.675 nm, respectively. The band gap of the thin films varied from 3.32 to 2.41 eV as composition varied from x = 0.0 to 1.0. It was observed that presence of small amount of cadmium results in marked changes in the optical band gap of ZnS. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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    Growth, structural and optical properties of CdxZn1-xS thin films deposited using spray pyrolysis technique
    (2010) Raviprakash, Y.; Bangera, K.V.; Shivakumar, G.K.
    CdxZn(1-x)S (x = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1) thin films were deposited by the chemical spray pyrolysis technique using a less used combination of chemicals. Depositions were done at 573 K on cleaned glass substrates. The composition, surface morphology and structural properties of deposited films were studied using EDAX, SEM and X-ray diffraction technique. XRD studies reveal that all the films are crystalline with hexagonal (wurtzite) structure and inclusion of Cd into the structure of ZnS improved the crystallinity of the films. The value of lattice constant 'a' and 'c' have been observed to vary with composition from 0.382 to 0.415 nm and 0.625 to 0.675 nm, respectively. The band gap of the thin films varied from 3.32 to 2.41 eV as composition varied from x = 0.0-1.0. It was observed that presence of small amount of cadmium results in marked changes in the optical band gap of ZnS. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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    Properties of ZnO:Bi thin films prepared by spray pyrolysis technique
    (Elsevier Ltd, 2013) Sadananda Kumar, N.; Bangera, K.V.; Anandan, C.; Shivakumar, G.K.
    Undoped and Bi doped zinc oxide thin films were deposited on glass substrate at 450 °C using spray pyrolysis technique. The X-ray diffraction studies shows that Bi doped ZnO films are polycrystalline hexagonal structure with a preferred orientation along (101) direction. Crystallites size of the films decreases with increasing doping concentration. Scanning electron microscope image shows change in the surface morphology. The composition of Zn, O and Bi elements in the undoped and Bi doped ZnO films were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Bi doped ZnO thin films show a transparency nearly 75% in the visible region. The optical band gap of ZnO thin films reduces from 3.25 eV to 3.12 eV with an increase in Bi concentration from 0 to 5at.% respectively. Electrical conductivity of ZnO thin films increased from 0.156 to 6.02S/cm with increasing Bi dopant concentration from 0% to 5% respectively. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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    Study of the doping of thermally evaporated zinc oxide thin films with indium and indium oxide
    (Springer Nature, 2013) Palimar, S.; Bangera, K.V.; Shivakumar, G.K.
    The present paper reports observations made on investigations carried out to study structural, optical and electrical properties of thermally evaporated ZnO thin films and their modulations on doping with metallic indium and indium oxide separately. ZnO thin film in the undoped state is found to have a very good conductivity of 90 ?–1 cm–1 with an excellent transmittance of up to 90 % in the visible region. After doping with metallic indium, the conductivity of the film is found to be 580 ?–1 cm–1, whereas the conductivity of indium oxide-doped films is increased up to 3.5 × 103 ?–1 cm–1. Further, the optical band gap of the ZnO thin film is widened from 3.26 to 3.3 eV when doped with indium oxide and with metallic indium it decreases to 3.2 eV. There is no considerable change in the transmittance of the films after doping. All undoped and doped films were amorphous in nature with smooth and flat surface without significant modifications due to doping. © 2012, The Author(s).
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    Effect of annealing on the properties of zinc oxide nanofiber thin films grown by spray pyrolysis technique
    (Springer Nature, 2014) Sadananda Kumar, N.; Bangera, K.V.; Shivakumar, G.K.
    Zinc oxide nanofiber thin films have been deposited on glass substrate by spray pyrolysis technique. The X-ray diffraction studies revealed that the films are polycrystalline with the hexagonal structure and a preferred orientation along (002) direction for films annealed for 1 h at 450 °C. Further increase in annealing time changes the preferred orientation to (100) direction. The scanning electron microscopic analysis showed the formation of ZnO nanofiber with an average diameter of approximately 800 nm for annealed films. The compositional analysis of nanofiber ZnO thin films were studied by time of flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy, which indicated oxygen deficiency in the films. The optical properties of annealed films have shown a variation in the band gap between 3.29 and 3.20 eV. The electrical conductivity of the as grown and annealed films showed an increase in the conductivity by two orders of magnitude with increase in annealing duration. © 2013, The Author(s).
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    Electrical characterization of vacuum-deposited p-CdTe/n-ZnSe heterojunctions
    (Springer Nature, 2015) Acharya, S.; Bangera, K.V.; Shivakumar, G.K.
    In this paper, we report a heterojunction of p-CdTe/n-ZnSe fabricated on a quartz substrate using thermal evaporation technique. The materials have a larger band gap difference in comparison to other II–VI heterojunctions-involving CdTe. The larger band gap difference is expected to increase diffusion potential and photovoltaic conversion efficiency. The electrical conduction mechanism involved, barrier height and band offset at the interface that are crucial to determine device performance are evaluated using electrical characterization of heterojunction. The junction exhibited excellent rectification behavior with an estimated barrier height of 0.9 eV. © 2015, The Author(s).
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    Band gap engineering of mixed Cd(1?x)Zn(x)Se thin films
    (Elsevier Ltd, 2017) Santhosh, T.C.M.; Bangera, K.V.; Shivakumar, G.K.
    This paper deals with band gap engineering in CdZnSe thin films. This was achieved by adding different amounts of zinc selenide (ZnSe) to cadmium selenide (CdSe). The weight percentage of ZnSe (x) was varied from 0 to 1 in steps of 0.2. The films were prepared using thermal evaporation technique. The structural analysis was carried out using X-ray diffraction. Surface morphology and elemental composition of the grown films was investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) respectively. As deposited cadmium selenide thin films were dark reddish in color, changes to lemon-yellow with increase in ZnSe concentration. Electrical transport studies have been carried out using two probe method. Resistivity of the mixed films increased with increase in ZnSe concentration and it shows semiconducting behavior. It is observed that activation energy for conduction increases from 0.39 eV to 0.85 eV with increase in ZnSe concentration. Optical properties of the films were analyzed from absorption and transmittance studies. It is observed that the optical band gap increases gradually from 1.67 eV to 2.60 eV as ‘x’ varied from 0 to 1. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.
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    Synthesis and band gap tuning in CdSe(1-x)Te(x) thin films for solar cell applications
    (Elsevier Ltd, 2017) Santhosh, T.C.M.; Bangera, K.V.; Shivakumar, G.K.
    Thin films of CdSe(1-x)Te(x) (x = 0 – 1) were grown on to the glass substrates by thermal evaporation method (PVD). The effect of annealing duration on the formation of single phase ternary alloys were systematically investigated. The prepared thin films were characterized by using FE-SEM, EDS and X-ray diffractometer. The X-ray diffraction studies shows that vacuum annealed films are polycrystalline in nature, and well oriented along a preferred direction of (0 0 2) for hexagonal and along (1 1 1) for cubic crystal structure. It is observed that increase in the CdTe concentration leads to change in the crystal structure from hexagonal to cubic. The absorption coefficients and optical band gaps were evaluated from spectrometric measurements. It is observed that optical band gap can be tuned from 1.67 eV to 1.51 eV as value of x varied from 0 to 1. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd
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    Structural, electrical and optical properties of stoichiometric In2Te3 thin films
    (Elsevier Ltd, 2017) Vallem, V.; Bangera, K.V.; Shivakumar, G.K.
    In2Te3 thin films were grown by thermal evaporation technique. The annealing of films played a major role to obtain stoichiometry, regardless of substrate temperature. Annealing at 300 ?C resulted in well oriented, mono-phased and nearly stoichiometric In2Te3 thin films. The variation in grain size of In2Te3 films associated with the substrate temperatures provides a significant control over the resistivity of the films, and the resistivity decreased with an increase in the grain size. The activation energy and optical band gap of stoichiometric In2Te3 films were found to be 0.01±0.005 eV and 0.99±0.02 eV, respectively. The absorption co-efficient of these films was found to be of the order of 105 cm?1. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l.
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    Effect of annealing on the properties of spray-pyrolysed lead sulphide thin films for solar cell application
    (Springer Verlag service@springer.de, 2017) Veena, E.; Bangera, K.V.; Shivakumar, G.K.
    Annealing is the most important processing parameter perhaps as it directly affects the properties of the thin films. In the present article, lead sulphide thin films composed of (2 0 0) plane-oriented nano-rods were successfully synthesized on glass substrates using spray pyrolysis technique at annealing temperature 350 °C. Films were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive analysis by X-ray (EDAX), UV–VIS–NIR spectrometry and two-probe experiments. The X-ray diffraction study confirmed that films exhibiting face-centred cubic structure with a preferred orientation along (2 0 0) plane were independent of annealing temperature. SEM photographs revealed the formation of nano-rods. The possible formation of nano-rods and its dependency on optical and electrical properties were discussed. Chemical composition in terms of atomic ratio of the constituents is determined from EDAX studies. The optical band gap of the lead sulphide thin films was found to decrease from 1.22 to 0.98 eV with an increase in annealing temperature. The electrical conductivity of the films at room temperature was of the order of 10?2 ??1 cm?1 with the low activation energy. Results prove that lead sulphide films grown by chemical method appeal its adoptability for potential solar cell applications. © 2017, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.