Investigation of the structural and optical properties of copper-titanium oxide thin films produced by changing the amount of copper

Abstract

We examine how the structural, morphological and optical properties of TiO2 thin films are changed with heavily copper (Cu) content. Variations in characteristic properties of the films with 0, 12.5, 25 and 50 wt% Cu contents, grown by sol-gel dip coating method, are observed by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman scattering, atomic force microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis and optical spectroscopy measurements. The XRD and Raman spectra indicate that pure TiO2 film forms in the anatase structure. At high Cu concentrations, XRD results also reveal the substitution of Ti with Cu and formation of extra compound Copper-Titanium oxide. Raman measurements also show that Cu is incorporated homogeneously into TiO2 matrix up to 12.5 wt% concentration and this uniformity is distorted at higher Cu contents. In addition, optical spectroscopy measurements show that the optical band gap energy decreases from 3.26 eV to 2.05 eV with increasing Cu concentration. Furthermore, it is observed that the refractive index values obtained by means of transmittance spectra at 550 nm wavelength; increases from 2.47 to 3.39 when the Cu concentration increases from 0 to 50 wt %.