Structural and vibrational investigations of Nb-doped TiO2 thin films

Highlights: • We studied the evolutions of structure for TiO{sub 2} thin film as changes with Nb doping and temperatures. • Up to 800 °C, the grain size of Nb{sub 0.1}Ti{sub 0.9}O{sub 2} is smaller than for pure TiO{sub 2} because doped Nb hinders the growth of the TiO{sub 2} grains. • There was no formation of the rutile phase at high temperature. • Nb doped TiO{sub 2} films have high electron densities at 400–700 °C. • Nb dope extends the absorbance spectra of TiO{sub 2} which leads to the band gap reduce. - Abstract: Acid-catalyzed sol–gel and spin-coating methods were used to prepare Nb-doped TiO{sub 2} thin film. In this work, we studied the effect of niobium doping on the structure, surface, and absorption properties of TiO{sub 2} by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray reflectometry (XRR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman, and UV–vis absorption spectroscopy at various annealing temperatures. EDX spectra show that the Nb:Ti atomic ratios of the niobium-doped titania films are in good agreement with the nominal values (5 and 10%). XPS results suggest that charge compensation is achieved by the formation of Ti vacancies. Specific niobium phases are not observed, thus confirming thatmore » niobium is well incorporated into the titania crystal lattice. Thin films are amorphous at room temperature and the formation of anatase phase appeared at an annealing temperature close to 400 °C. The rutile phase was not observed even at 900 °C (XRD and Raman spectroscopy). Grain sizes and electron densities increased when the temperature was raised. Nb-doped films have higher electron densities and lower grain sizes due to niobium doping. Grain size inhibition can be explained by lattice stress induced by the incorporation of larger Nb{sup 5+} ions into the lattice. The band gap energy of indirect transition of the TiO{sub 2} thin films was calculated to be about 3.03 eV. After niobium doping, it decreased to 2.40 eV.« less