Study of Copper Addition on the Gas Sensitivity of Iron Oxide Films.

The study was conducted to prepare iron oxide (Fe2O3) films by mixing with copper (Cu) in ratios (4, 2, 1, 0) using the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method. It was found that adding copper leads to a reduction in the crystal size of iron oxide films. It was also found that when copper is added as a doping agent, it contributes to improving the growth of the grains. This smaller grain size means an increase in the surface to volume ratio for iron oxide, which enhances the effectiveness of the interaction with gases. This led to an increase in gas sensitivity and an increase in detection efficiency. It was also noted that the mixing ratio of 4% led to an increase in good and ideal homogeneity, due to the effect of the copper ratio on the pure films compared to the rest of the ratios. In general, this study also proved that (Cu) led to an increase in the gas sensitivity of pure iron oxide (Fe2O3) in terms of increasing absorption, absorption coefficient, and permeability, as well as decreasing the energy gap and increasing electrical conductivity. The study proved that the laser deposition method is the best method used to form the films.