Phase separation in Ga and N co-incorporated ZnO films and its effects on photo-response in photoelectrochemical water splitting

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-1-2011

Abstract

Ga and N co-incorporated ZnO thin films [ZnO:(Ga:N)] with reduced bandgaps were deposited by co-sputtering at different N2 gas flow rate in mixed N2 and O2 ambient at room temperature followed by postannealing at 500 °C in air for 2 h. We found that all of the ZnO:(Ga:N) films exhibited enhanced crystallinity which can suppress the recombination rate between the photogenerated electrons and holes. However, phase segregation of Zn3N2 occurred in ZnO:(Ga:N) thin films in nitrogen-rich sputtering ambient. We found that ZnO:(Ga:N) thin films without phase separation of Zn3N2 exhibited much better photoelectrochemical (PEC) response, due to the reduced bandgap and better crystallinity. Our results suggest that growth conditions must be controlled carefully to avoid phase separation in Ga and N co-incorporated ZnO thin films to improve PEC response. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Identifier

79958163782 (Scopus)

Publication Title

Thin Solid Films

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsf.2011.03.050

ISSN

00406090

First Page

5983

Last Page

5987

Issue

18

Volume

519

Grant

DE-AC36-08GO 2 8308

Fund Ref

U.S. Department of Energy

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