Effect of Annealing Temperature in Improvement the Optical Properties of TiO2 Doped Fe2O3 to Use in Thin Film
Authors: Hamid Abubakr Mahmoud , Hassan Hassan Wardi , Osman Fatima Ahmed 
Published: September 2019

Solar energy is already has being widely successfully used in residential and industrial setting for thermal and electrical application such as space technology, communication, etc. I.

Aims: The aim of this study the effect of the annealing temperature in improvement optical properties of titanium oxide nanostructure doped iron oxide for use in thin film.

Study Design: The spray pyrolysis deposition method used for preparation the nanostructure material.

Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted in department of physics and department of materials sciences, Al-Neelain University, between January 2016 and January 2019. 

Methodology: Thin films of Titanium Oxide (TiO2) doped Iron Oxide (Fe2O3) have been prepared by chemical spray pyrolysis deposition technique. A laboratory designed glass atomizer was used for spraying the aqueous solution. Which has an output nozzle about 1 mm. then film were deposited on preheated cleaned glass substrates at temperature of 400°C. we used different concentration to study optical parameters. A 1.5 g TiO2 powder of anatase structure doped with 1.5 g of Fe2O3 was mixed with 2 ml of ethanol and stirred using a magnetic stirrer for 30 minutes to form TiO2 paste to obtain the starting solution for deposition and spray time was 10 s and spray interval 2 min was kept constant. The carrier gas (filtered compressed air) was maintained at a pressure of 105 Nm-2, and distance between nozzle and substrate was about 30 cm ± 1 cm. Thickness of sample was measured using the weighting method and was found to be around 400nm. Optical transmittance and absorbance were record in wavelength range of (200-1100) nm using UV-Visible spectrophotometer (Shimadzu Company Japan).

Results: The results obtained showed that the optical band gap decreased from 5.6eV before annealing to (3.9, 3.26, 3.24 and 3.27 eV) after annealing temperature at(450° – 500°) for TiO2:Fe2O3 thin films, this result refer to the broadening of  secondary levels that product by TiO2: doping to the Fe2O2thin films. Also the results showed the variation of refractive index with wavelength for different concentration after annealing temperature at (450° – 500°) of TiO2: Fe2O3 films from this figure, it is clear that n decrease with low concentration and increase with high concentration after annealing temperature that mean the density is decreased of this films. In addition the extinction coefficient of TiO2:Fe2O3 thin films recorded before annealing and with different concentration (1.1, 1.2, 1,5 and 1,6) and in the range of (300 – 1200) nm and at annealing temperature from (450° – 500°). It observed from that the extinction coefficient, decrease sharply with the increase of wavelength for all prepared films and all the sample after annealing is interference between them accept the sample before annealing is far from the other sample.

Conclusion: The TiO2 thin film shows better result after annealing; By exposing temperature during annealing process degree at (450o- 500o) is found to be the best temperature for annealing TiO2 thin film. The study concluded that an annealing temperature Contributes to the improvement of optical properties related to increasing the efficiency of the solar cell, especially the refractive index, energy gap, extinction coefficient.