Growth of transparent conducting rutile TiO2:Nb and diode characteristics of N-TiO2:Nb/p-Si

Abstract

In the present work, semiconducting 6% Nb doped TiO2 (NTO) have been deposited on quartz and silicon substrates by pulse laser deposition (PLD) technique with NTO target in high vacuum. Structural, surface, electrical, and optical properties of NTO thin films were investigated at room temperature. Less smooth surface morphology and rutile phase of the film has been confirmed from the AFM and GIXRD analysis. Optical and electrical properties were studied by using UV-Vis spectrophotometer and current-voltage (I-V) characteristics. The band gap of 3.4 eV was obtained for NTO thin film. Diode heterostructure was fabricated using n-type NTO and p-type Si substrates. The I-V characteristics of heterostructure were measure under dark, UV exposure and light illuminated condition. The different I-V characteristics study may lead to improve the performance with structural and electronic properties of the NTO thin film and heterojunction for the field of optoelectronics.