CHARACTERIZATION OF TRANSPARENT AND CONDUCTING DOPED TITANIUM DIOXIDE FOR ENERGY CONVERSION

Niobium-Doped Titanium Dioxide thin films were prepared by RF magnetron sputtering at room temperature. The TiO2 thin films were deposited with thicknesses of about 400 nm, doped with different concentration of niobium and then annealed in H2 environment at 460 o C. The influence of doping and post deposition annealing in H2 environment on the structural and composition was studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The structure and composition of the prepared films were found to be affected by the Nb dopant concentration and the post deposition annealing. This study found that doping TiO2 with Nb implying improved conductivity compared to pure TiO2 which exhibits insulating properties. TiO2/p-CdTe photovoltaic devices with efficiency of about 2 % were fabricated.