Variation of Optical and Electrical Properties of Zr Doped TiO₂ Thin Films with Different Annealing Temperatures

Zr doped (0.01M) TiO₂ thin films were fabricated by unconventional sol-gel technique starting from powder precursors. Using microscopic glass slide, the films were deposited and annealing was done at different temperatures. In order to study the structural properties of these fabricated films x-ray diffraction has been adopted. Similarly, for the study of optical and electrical properties, UV-VIS spectrophotometer and Hall measurement techniques have been adopted for all the fabricated samples. It is found that the doped TiO₂ thin film annealed at 350 °C showed a reduced band gap value in comparison to other films. This sample is also found to have highest optical and electrical conductivity which makes it suitable for light harvesting. Our result shows that Zr doped TiO₂ thin film annealed at 350 °C plays an important role in tuning the properties for device applications. (paper)