Faculty Publications
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Item 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).Item 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).Item 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).Item 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.Item Effect of cadmium incorporation on the properties of zinc oxide thin films(Springer Nature, 2018) Bharath, S.P.; Bangera, K.V.; Shivakumar, G.K.CdxZn1-xO (0 ? x ? 0.20) thin films are deposited on soda lime glass substrates using spray pyrolysis technique. To check the thermal stability, CdxZn1-xO thin films are subjected to annealing. Both the as-deposited and annealed CdxZn1-xO thin films are characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX) to check the structural, surface morphological and compositional properties, respectively. XRD analysis reveals that the both as-deposited and annealed CdxZn1-xO thin films are (002) oriented with wurtzite structure. SEM studies confirm that as-deposited, as well as annealed CdxZn1-xO thin films are free from pinholes and cracks. Compositional analysis shows the deficiency in Cd content after annealing. Optical properties evaluated from UV-Vis spectroscopy shows red shift in the band gap for CdxZn1-xO thin films. Electrical property measured using two probe method shows a decrease in the resistance after Cd incorporation. The results indicate that cadmium can be successfully incorporated in zinc oxide thin films to achieve structural changes in the properties of films. © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018.Item Effect of substrate temperature on the suitability of thermally deposited cadmium sulfide thin films as window layer in photovoltaic cells(Academic Press, 2018) Barman, B.; Bangera, K.V.; Shivakumar, G.K.Cadmium sulfide has been studied as an important material in solar energy research because of its energy band gap and attractive electrical characteristics. While thin films of cadmium sulfide have been found to be useful as window layer in a solar cell, the role of various deposition parameters is yet to be understood. In the current study, the role of substrate temperature on the characteristics of the CdS thin films is analyzed. Thin films of cadmium sulfide (?450 nm thick) were deposited at various substrate temperatures viz., 300 K, 323 K, 373 K, and 423 K onto clean glass substrates by vacuum thermal evaporation method. The structural, morphological, and opto-electrical properties of the deposited films were studied as a function of substrate temperature. X-ray diffraction (XRD) study revealed that the thin films are polycrystalline in nature and having a hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure along (002) plane. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) along with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) revealed that the grown films are homogeneous, uniform and pin-hole free. All the films deposited at various substrate temperature displayed high optical transmittance (>60%) in the visible range. The optical energy band gap of the films was estimated using Tauc's plot and was found to increase by a slight margin with an increase in the substrate temperature and decrease at higher substrate temperature. The photosensitivity was found to be highest for the CdS thin film grown at a substrate temperature of 373 K. © 2018 Elsevier LtdItem Enhanced gas sensing properties of indium doped ZnO thin films(Academic Press, 2018) Bharath, S.P.; Bangera, K.V.; Shivakumar, G.K.Indium doped ZnO (InxZn1-xO, 0 ? x ? 0.05) thin films were deposited on to soda lime glass substrate by employing spray pyrolysis as deposition technique. Effect of doping concentration on characteristics of thin films were examined by XRD, SEM, UV-Visible spectroscopy, electrical and gas sensing measurements. XRD analysis demonstrates polycrystalline nature of thin films and also shows the shift in orientation from (002) to (101) crystal plane with increase in indium doping concentration. Surface morphological analysis shows the formation of homogeneous particle like nanostructures. Optical transmittance determined from UV-Visible spectroscopy was in the range of 80–95%, which was decreasing with increase in indium doping concentration. Maximum electrical conductivity was achieved at an optimal indium doping concentration of 3 at.%. The gas sensing properties were examined for different concentration of volatile organic compounds like acetone, ethanol and methanol for different doping levels. In0.03Zn0.97O thin films showed good sensitivity towards ethanol, with sensitivity of 30% towards 25 ppm of ethanol. © 2018 Elsevier LtdItem A comprehensive study on the structural, morphological, compositional and optical properties of ZnxCd1-xS thin films(Institute of Physics Publishing helen.craven@iop.org, 2019) Barman, B.; Bangera, K.V.; Shivakumar, G.K.The absorption loss in cadmium sulfide (CdS) thin films which are widely used as a window layer in a photovoltaic cell limits the efficiency of the device. This issue can be addressed by ZnxCd1-xS thin films due to its tunable band gap nature. Herein, the various composition of ZnxCd1-xS (x=0, 0.15, 0.30, 0.45, 0.70, 0.85, 1) thin films were grown by a vacuum thermal evaporation technique and the characteristics of the films were investigated by varying the composition 'x'. The x-ray diffraction (XRD) studies displayed that the as-deposited films consist of diffraction peaks from both CdS and ZnS lattice. The formation of ternary ZnxCd1-xS films was verified when the deposited films were subjected to an annealing treatment. The morphology of the films was analyzed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and it was observed that the films are uniform, homogeneous and free from any pin-holes and cracks. The presence of Zn, Cd and S elements were quantized using an energy dispersive spectroscopy. Optical studies showed a successful non-linear band gap engineering (2.42-3.49 eV) for the deposited ZnxCd1-xS thin films. All films showed a very high optical transmittance of above 70% in the visible wavelength region. © 2020 IOP Publishing Ltd.Item Preparation of thermally deposited Cux(ZnS)1-x thin films for opto-electronic devices(Elsevier Ltd, 2019) Barman, B.; Bangera, K.V.; Shivakumar, G.K.Zinc sulfide thin films have been doped with copper atoms to investigate their efficiency as transparent conductor layers. Cux(ZnS)1-x thin films were deposited on glass substrate using thermal evaporation technique by varying the Cu concentration (x = 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, 0.05, 0.10 and 0.25). The prepared thin films were characterized using XRD, FE-SEM, EDS and UV–Vis spectroscopy. The X-ray diffraction studies revealed that the films are crystalline in nature and well oriented along (111) direction with the cubic crystal structure. Crystallite size increases with increase in Cu concentration. FE-SEM studies showed that the films are homogenous and pin-hole free. All the films exhibited p-type conductivity. It was also observed that the band gap of the Cux(ZnS)1-x films vary from 3.48 eV to 2.60 eV when the copper content varies from 0 to 0.25. At a Cu concentration of x = 0.03, the hole conductivity increases to 1.9 × 103 S/m retaining an optical transparency of ?73% in the visible spectra. This combination of optical transparency and hole conductivity of Cux(ZnS)1-x thin films for such low Cu concentration is, to our knowledge, the best reported to date. © 2018Item Synthesis and characterization of Cu 1-x Zn x O composite thin films for sensor application(Elsevier Ltd, 2019) Bharath, S.P.; Bangera, K.V.; Shivakumar, G.K.Cu 1-x Zn x O composite thin films were prepared using industrially applicable spray pyrolysis technique for volatile organic compound (VOCs)sensor application. Sensing properties for different concentration of VOCs such as acetone, ethanol and methanol were studied at different sensor operating temperature. XRD studies on prepared thin films confirmed formation of CuO[sbnd]ZnO composite thin films with presence of different peaks for monoclinic structured CuO and hexagonal structure ZnO, it was also observed that formation of composite material improves sensing property towards VOCs. Granular morphology observed from SEM images were also contributed to enhance sensitivity of Cu 1-x Zn x O thin films. Hot probe experiment reveals that all the thin films were p-type in conductivity nature. Maximum electrical conductivity was achieved for Cu 0.75 Zn 0.25 O composite thin films, which also showed highest sensing property for VOCs. Cu 0.75 Zn 0.25 O thin films were selective towards ethanol and were capable of detecting 1 ppm of ethanol at operating temperature of 290 °C. © 2019