Structural and Optical Characterization of Nitrogen-doped TiO2 Thin Films Deposited by Spray Pyrolysis on Fluorine Doped Tin Oxide (FTO) Coated Glass Slides

Abstract

Undoped and nitrogen-doped titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin films of 400 nm thick deposited by spray pyrolysis were structurally and optically characterized. The effect of substrate temperature on the optical properties of the films was also investigated. Structural studies of the films were undertaken by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectrum analysis was used to confirm the presence of nitrogen atoms in the film after doping. The optical properties such as refractive index (n), energy band gap (Eg) and Urbach energy (Eu) were determined from spectrophotometric measurements of reflectance and transmittance for both undoped and doped films. The Undoped films had an energy band gap of 3.25 eV while the doped films had band gap of 2.90 eV. The Urbach energy increased from 1.00 eV for undoped films to 1.04 eV for the nitrogen-doped films. The reduction in energy band gap and increase in Urbach energy was attributed to the introduction of nitrogen impurity tail states on either the conduction band or the valence band of the titanium dioxide.