Quantum Confinement Effects of Thin <i>Co</i>₃<i>O</i>₄ Films

Abstract

Thin Co films were deposited on quartz and Corning glass by radio frequency magnetron sputtering. The films were postannealed at 500 °C in a furnace in air atmosphere. The resulting samples were examined with X-ray diffraction experiments, which revealed that they consist of single-phase, polycrystalline Co3O4. The morphology of selected samples was recorded by atomic force microscopy. Ultraviolet-visible light absorption spectroscopy experiments probed the absorbance of the films in the wavelength range 200–1100 nm. Two types of transitions (energy gaps) were clearly identified. Both of them were found to be “blue shifted” with decreasing film thickness; this is interpreted as evidence of quantum confinement effects. For the case of the first gap value, this was corroborated by calculations based on a combination of the Potential Morphing Method and the effective mass approximation.

Keywords

• thin films
• oxide semiconductors
• cobalt
• sputtering
• optical properties
• solar energy