The effects of thermal treatment under argon–oxygen ambient on the microstructure and optical properties of DC sputtered Cr thin films for selective solar absorbers applications
dc.contributor.author | Tibaijuka, Justine J. | |
dc.contributor.author | Nyarige, Justine Sageka | |
dc.contributor.author | Diale, M. (Mmantsae Moche) | |
dc.contributor.author | Mlyuka, Nuru R. | |
dc.contributor.author | Samiji, Margaret E. | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2024-02-29T11:53:30Z | |
dc.date.available | 2024-02-29T11:53:30Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2023-01 | |
dc.description | DATA AVAILABILITY : The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. | en_US |
dc.description.abstract | This work investigated the effect of thermal treatment of as-deposited chromium (Cr) thin films in a vacuum and argon/oxygen ambient for effective deposition of spectral selective solar absorber multilayer films. The DC sputtered Cr thin films were thermally exposed at different temperatures in a controlled argon/oxygen environment. Both as-deposited films and those thermally treated in vacuum and in oxygen–argon ambient revealed a weak XRD diffraction peak at 2θ≈44.3° corresponding to (110) plane of BCC structure of Cr metal. Raman analysis revealed one peak at 846 cm−1 corresponding to Cr–O vibration bonds for films thermally treated at 300 °C in a vacuum and 150 °C and 300 °C in argon–oxygen ambient. As determined by AFM and FE-SEM, surface roughness decreased with temperature increase for films thermally treated in a vacuum. Besides, a mixed trend in the evolution of surface roughness was observed for films thermally treated in argon/oxygen ambient. The average spectral transmittance for samples thermally treated in a vacuum decreased with an increase in temperature; however, the samples thermally treated in an argon–oxygen environment exhibited an increasing trend in average spectral transmittance with the increase in temperature. The results clearly show that post-deposition processing at elevated temperatures, particularly in argon–oxygen ambient, influences the structural and optical properties of prior-deposited Cr thin films. This should be considered when designing and depositing multi-layered dielectric/Cr spectral selective solar absorber films. | en_US |
dc.description.department | Physics | en_US |
dc.description.librarian | hj2024 | en_US |
dc.description.sdg | None | en_US |
dc.description.sponsorship | The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of Tanzania (MoEST), The University of Dar es Salaam—Tanzania, University of Pretoria – South Africa, Materials Science and Solar Energy network for Eastern and Southern Africa (MSSEESA), SARCHI UID No.115463 and the International Science Programme (ISP)—Uppsala University, Sweden. | en_US |
dc.description.uri | https://link.springer.com/journal/10854 | en_US |
dc.identifier.citation | Tibaijuka, J.J., Nyarige, J.S., Diale, M. et al. The effects of thermal treatment under argon–oxygen ambient on the microstructure and optical properties of DC sputtered Cr thin films for selective solar absorbers applications. Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics 34, 173 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-022-09571-1. | en_US |
dc.identifier.issn | 0957-4522 (print) | |
dc.identifier.issn | 1573-482X (online) | |
dc.identifier.issn | 10.1007/s10854-022-09571-1 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/2263/95013 | |
dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
dc.publisher | Springer | en_US |
dc.rights | © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023. The original publication is available at : https://link.springer.com/journal/10854. | en_US |
dc.subject | Chromium thin films | en_US |
dc.subject | Solar absorber multilayer films | en_US |
dc.subject | Sputtering | en_US |
dc.subject | Antireflection coating | en_US |
dc.subject | Selective absorbers | en_US |
dc.subject | Substrate temperature | en_US |
dc.subject | Chromium (VI) | en_US |
dc.title | The effects of thermal treatment under argon–oxygen ambient on the microstructure and optical properties of DC sputtered Cr thin films for selective solar absorbers applications | en_US |
dc.type | Postprint Article | en_US |