RP-Department of Physics

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Browsing RP-Department of Physics by Author "Amatalo, I. A."

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    Optical and electrical properties of CdO: Sn thin films for solar cell applications
    (Scientific & Academic Publishing, 2014) Makori, N. E.; Amatalo, I. A.; Karimi, P. M.; Njoroge, W. K.
    Tin doped Cadmium Oxide (CdO:Sn) thin films were successfully deposited by thermal evaporation in the Edward’s Auto 306 Magnetron Sputtering System. Their optical and electrical properties were studied using Solid Spec-3700 DUV Spectrophotometer and Four Point Probe respectively. The optical properties of CdO:Sn thin films showed high transparency in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum which varied with Sn doping, this makes CdO:Sn an excellent candidate for optoelectronic applications such as a window layer. Undoped Cadmium Oxide (CdO) thin films were also prepared for comparison with tin doped Cadmium Oxide thin films. Doped and undoped Cadmium Oxide had a transmittance of 70-85% and 50-89% respectively. Band gap energy for undoped CdO was 2.43eV while that of tin doped CdO ranged between 3.19-3.29eV for tin doping of 1-7%. Resistivity of undoped and Tin doped Cadmium Oxide ranged between 16-93Ωcm.
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    Optical and electrical properties of Snse thin films for solar cell applications.
    (Institute for Condensed Matter Physics, 2014) Makori, N. E.; Amatalo, I. A.; Karimi, P. M.; Njoroge, W. K.
    Tin Selenide (SnSe) thin films were optimised for thin film solar cell applications. The thin films were successfully deposited by thermal evaporation using Edward’s Auto 306 Magnetron Sputtering System. Their optical and electrical properties were studied using Solid Spec-3700 DUV Spectrophotometer and Four Point Probe method respectively. The deposited SnSe thin films had transmittance ranging between 1 - 45%. SCOUT 98 Software was used to obtain optical band gap values and absorption coefficients of SnSe thin films. Optical band gap values obtained were in the range of 1.71-1.76eV. The thin films showed decrease of resistivity from 181-120Ωcm with increase in film thickness from 112-148 nm. Low transmittance of SnSe implies high absorption coefficient which is one of the important parameter to be considered when choosing absorber layers for thin film solar cell applications.