Photoluminescence of undoped and Ce-doped SnO2 thin films deposited by sol–gel-dip-coating method

Structural, optical and electrical properties of Nd-doped SnO2 thin films fabricated by reactive magnetron sputtering for solar cell devices

“…For sample grown at 15°C, a large intense and asymmetric emission band is observed in the UV-vis range, originating most likely from the SnO 2 matrix (the signal for this sample was divided by 2 for clarity). The deconvolution applied to this large band resulted in the identification of three major contributions: a first band centered around 415 nm and assigned to radiative transitions of free electrons from the intermediate donor levels created by oxygen vacancies to the valence band; a second band around 440 nm which can be ascribed to luminescent centers originating from inter-grain defects [18,36]; the third broad band centered around 580 nm is commonly attributed to radiative transitions through the deep levels present in the band gap. The origin of these radiative transitions can be multiple [37]: first is oxygen vacancies (VO) which usually play a dominant role in the PL process as they can generate important amounts of trapped states within the band gap of SnO 2 material; second is the grainboundaries defects which represent efficient recombination centers that are highly present in the case of amorphous structures (similar to powders) and lead to significant visible emission, and the last is the tin interstitial atoms which form a good part of defects that induce efficient radiative transitions [18,35].…”

“…Moreover, SnO 2 exhibits a high transparency in the visible range and a strong reflectivity in the NIR region [16]. In addition to the TCO properties, SnO 2 can be doped with trivalent rare earth elements (RE) such as Yb, Er, Eu, Ce, Sm and Nd [17][18][19][20][21], which generates novel properties without affecting transparency or other key properties thanks to the photoluminescence properties of these ions.…”

Investigation of p-type SnO2:Zn films deposited using a simplified spray pyrolysis technique

“…Eventhough Sinha et al [39] reported that this PL emission peak at 340 nm is difficult to detect and also mentioned that many researchers observed a broad dominant peak only near 396 nm without any peak around 340 nm, in the present study we have observed a strong peak at 340 nm. The peak at 396 nm might be corresponding to the electron transition from the donor level formed by oxygen vacancies to the valence band as reported by Chen et al [40]. With the increase in the Zn doping level, the intensity of the PL emission increases along with the sharpening of the defect related peaks which are observed in the region of 425-500 nm.…”

Effect of precursors on the microstructural, optical, electrical and electrochromic properties of WO3 nanocrystalline thin films

“…are the most common defects due to oxygen vacancies, and trap electrons from the valence band and may act as luminescent centers inside the bandgap [46]. When excited by UV radiation (256 nm), electrons in the valance bands moves to conductance band, creating a hole in the valance band.…”