Enhancement in the solar light harvesting ability of tungsten oxide thin films by annealing in vacuum and hydrogen

Thin films of tungsten oxide were fabricated by RF-sputtering. The films were annealed in vacuum and hydrogen at different temperatures to enhance the solar light absorption in the visible and near infrared regions by creating oxygen vacancies and localized surface plasmon resonance. The effect of v...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of hydrogen energy Vol. 42; no. 48; pp. 28755 - 28765
Main Authors Hussain, Tanvir, Al-Kuhaili, M.F., Durrani, S.M.A., Qurashi, Ahsanulhaq, Qayyum, H.A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier Ltd 30.11.2017
Subjects
Band gap
Hall effect
LSPR
Oxygen vacancies
Photocurrent
Solar light
Oxygen vacancies
LSPR
Hall effect
Photocurrent
Band gap
Solar light
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Summary:Thin films of tungsten oxide were fabricated by RF-sputtering. The films were annealed in vacuum and hydrogen at different temperatures to enhance the solar light absorption in the visible and near infrared regions by creating oxygen vacancies and localized surface plasmon resonance. The effect of vacuum and hydrogen annealing on structural, morphology, chemical, electrical and optical properties were investigated. Vacuum-annealed and hydrogen-annealed films behaved like degenerate semiconductor and showed strong absorption in the near-infrared region due to localized surface plasmon resonance. The solar light harvesting properties of as-deposited, vacuum-annealed and hydrogen-annealed tungsten oxide films were examined by measuring their photocurrent response. •WO3 thin films were prepared by RF-sputtering.•Optical absorption of WO3 films was enhanced by annealing in vacuum and hydrogen.•Annealed WO3 films behave like degenerate semiconductors.•Photocurrent density was increased by increasing annealing temperature.
ISSN:0360-3199
1879-3487
DOI:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.09.130