Investigation of Nanoscale Ta:TiO2 Transparent Conductive Layers for Smart Glass Applications

Authors : Ali Kemal Mak, Osman Öztürk, Mevlüt Karabulut
Pages : 470-478
View : 76 | Download : 49
Publication Date : 2025-06-01
Article Type : Research Paper
Abstract :An intense effort has been given globally to the investigation of new and alternative renewable energy sources in order to meet the increasing energy needs of societies. On the other hand, effective usage of energy sources is also an important issue. TCO should be used as a conductive oxide layer in smart glass applications. Especially in electrochromic (EC) materials, electrochromic glasses, which can be converted into transparent / colored with a small voltage applied with a conductive oxide layer, are one of the important components of energy-saving buildings. A complete EC device has a total of 5 layers including two transparent conducting layers, usually ITO in application. In this paper, tantalum doped TiO2 films have been investigated as an alternative to ITO for WO3 based EC devices. Ta:TiO2 films of different thicknesses were grown on glass substrates that were heated to 500 ºC by radiofrequency magnetron sputtering. The structural, optic and morphological properties of the films were investigated by means of XRD, XRR, SEM, AFM, UV-vis-NIR, XPS and Hall effect measurements. The thickness of TiO2 films was kept constant at 90 Å while the thickness of Ta films were varied as 6 Å, 12 Å and 18 Å. XRD analysis showed that all of the films were amorphous. The XRR measurements indicated that the layer density increased with increasing Ta content. The transparency of undoped TiO2 film had a transparency of 90 % and decreased with Ta doping. Addition of Ta initially caused a decrease in the surface roughness after which it increased. The binding energy of Ta 4f band was in the 26-27 eV range indicating the Ta2O5 phase while the binding energy of Ti 2p bands were found to be in 457-459 eV interval, indicating the TiO2 phase. A shift was observed in the positions of these bands with the Ta content.
Keywords : Elektrokromik, Ta:TiO2, Magnetron Sıçratma, TCO, Akıllı Camlar

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