Synthesis and characterization of band gap-reduced ZnO:N and ZnO:(Al,N) films for photoelectrochemical water splitting

Sudhakar Shet, Kwang Soon Ahn, Todd Deutsch, He Ii Wang, Nuggehalli Ravindra, Yanfa Yan, John Turner, Mowafak Al-Jassim

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

66 Scopus citations

Abstract

ZnO thin films with significantly reduced band gaps were synthesized by doping N and codoping Al and N at 100 °C. All the films were synthesized by radiofrequency magnetron sputtering on F-doped tin-oxide-coated glass. We found that codoped ZnO: (Al,N) thin films exhibited significantly enhanced crystallinity compared with ZnO doped solely with N, ZnO:N, at the same growth conditions. Furthermore, annealed ZnO:(Al,N) thin films exhibited enhanced N incorporation over ZnO:N films. As a result, ZnO:(Al,N) films exhibited better photocurrents than ZnO:N films grown with pure N doping, suggesting that charge-compensated donor-acceptor codoping could be a potential method for band gap reduction of wide-band gap oxide materials to improve their photoelectrochemical performance.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)69-75
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Materials Research
Volume25
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2010

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Materials Science
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Mechanical Engineering

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