What is it about?
We show that low energy ions (150eV) can effectively dope titanium dioxide (anatase) and make it a good electrical conductor while preserving its transparency, such that N doped TiO2 can be used as transparent conductor electrode. We demostrate that the doping process by low energy ion implantation (only 1560 eV) does not change the crystal structure of the Anatase crystal.
Featured Image
Photo by Thomas Coker on Unsplash
Why is it important?
We show the effectiveness of low energy ion beam in doping titanium dioxide without changing is crystal structure. In our method, we can have very accurate control of the amount of dopant and the crystal structure of the film independently. So, crystal grain are not modified and the material does not become amorphous. So, the TCO performance was very interesting with respect to established materials, like ITO.
Perspectives
New transparent conductor materials are needed and this in particular could be an alternative to established ones. Moreover, the doping process is very simple and could even be adapted with lower energies using pulsed plasma facilities. Also, established routes for anatase synthesis could be used associated with ion doping, and the price of the thin films could be rather low compared with physical deposition.
Dr Luiz Fernando Zagonel
unicamp
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Study of nitrogen ion doping of titanium dioxide films, Applied Surface Science, June 2018, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2018.02.259.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Oral presentation about this article
Slides of oral presentation given at E-MRS in Lille, 2016.
Manuscript of Study of nitrogen ion doping of titanium dioxide films
Manuscript of the article in the ArXiv database
Graphical Abstract
Graphical Abstract shows the sample preparation (left), sample specs (center) and actual sample (right).
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page