Modification of Electrical and Optical Properties by Incorporating Mn, Ta and Nb Dopants into TiO2-based Thin layer Utilizing Powder-based Physical Vapor Deposition (PPVD) Technique

Powder-based Physical Vapor Deposition (PPVD) was utilized to deposit doped TiO2 thin layers, to modify electronic and optical properties. The modification was performed using different dopants (MnO2, Ta2O5, Nb2O5) at different concentrations (0.05 and 0.1 mol%) respectively. The structural characterization by FESEM reveals that the size of the grain varied with respect to the dopants. The sample doped at lower concentration demonstrates a larger crystallite size than the sample doped at higher concentration. This trend is consistent with the measured grain size of the doped thin layer samples. The nonlinearity coefficient (α) and breakdown voltage at lower ranges are enhanced as the dopant concentration in the TiO2 lattice increases due to the reduction of grain size. While, the optical properties of doped TiO2 thin layers with respect to energy bandgap demonstrated enhancement trend with the addition of the dopant as revealed by UV-Vis’s reflectance analysis. The enhancement of electrical and optical properties is contributed by the formation of barrier layer surrounding the grains, which in return increases the conductivity of the doped TiO2 thin layers sample. Conclusively, this study demonstrates the feasibility of the PPVD method in producing a dense thin layer structure for further optical and electrical based applications.