Structural, morphological, and optical properties of TiO2 thin films synthesized by the electro phoretic deposition technique

Abstract

In this work, we report the structural, morphological, and optical properties of TiO 2 thin films synthesized by the electro phoretic deposition technique. The TiO 2 film was formed on a doped fluorine tin oxide (SnO 2 :F, i.e., FTO) layer and used as a photo electrode in a dye solar cell (DSC). Using spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements in the 200 to 800 nm wavelengths domain, we obtain a thickness of the TiO 2 film in the range of 70 to 80 nm. Characterizations by X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy (AFM) show a polycrystalline film. In addition, AFM investigation shows no cracks in the formed layer. Using an ultraviolet–visible near-infrared spectrophotometer, we found that the transmittance of the TiO 2 film in the visible domain reaches 75%. From the measured current–voltage or I-V characteristic under AM1.5 illumination of the formed DSC, we obtain an open circuit voltage V oc = 628 mV and a short circuit current I sc = 22.6 μA, where the surface of the formed cell is 3.14 cm 2 .