• Khalil, Maria
• Sami, Samiullah
• Ullah, Farman
• Ikhlaq, Uzma
• Ali, Shahzad Akhtar

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>V<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>O<jats:sub>5</jats:sub> shows a diverse range of applications due to its remarkable electronic and optical properties. This research is designed to tune the electronic and optical properties of V<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>O<jats:sub>5</jats:sub> through modification in the energy band profile by varying Zn doping concentration. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were used to investigate the Density of States (DOS) spectra for pure V<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>O<jats:sub>5</jats:sub>, exhibiting the prominent contribution of V-<jats:italic>d</jats:italic> and O-<jats:italic>p</jats:italic> orbitals, representing the <jats:italic>p-d</jats:italic> hybridized orbitals along with additional Zn-<jats:italic>d</jats:italic> orbital contribution in Zn-doped compositions. The effects of doping on the structural, morphological, elemental, and optical properties of the developed thin films were investigated employing x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), x-ray dispersive spectroscopy (EDX), and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE), respectively. x-ray diffraction analysis revealed the orthorhombic crystal structure in thin films. Surface morphology depicts the uniformly distributed compact rod-like features. The experimentally calculated band gap was found to decrease with Zn doping from 2.77 eV for pure V<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>O<jats:sub>5</jats:sub> to 2.45 eV for maximum doping content. A significant variation is recorded in optical parameters like the increase in absorption coefficient and optical conductivity, which makes these more favorable for optoelectronic devices, particularly focusing on photovoltaics.</jats:p>

Topics

• density
• impedance spectroscopy
• surface
• scanning electron microscopy
• x-ray diffraction
• theory
• thin film
• ellipsometry
• density functional theory
• Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy