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.authorTibaijuka, Justine J.
dc.contributor.authorNyarige, Justine Sageka
dc.contributor.authorDiale, M. (Mmantsae Moche)
dc.contributor.authorMlyuka, Nuru R.
dc.contributor.authorSamiji, Margaret E.
dc.date.accessioned2024-02-29T11:53:30Z
dc.date.available2024-02-29T11:53:30Z
dc.date.issued2023-01
dc.descriptionDATA 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.abstractThis 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.departmentPhysicsen_US
dc.description.librarianhj2024en_US
dc.description.sdgNoneen_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThe 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.urihttps://link.springer.com/journal/10854en_US
dc.identifier.citationTibaijuka, 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.issn0957-4522 (print)
dc.identifier.issn1573-482X (online)
dc.identifier.issn10.1007/s10854-022-09571-1
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/95013
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherSpringeren_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.subjectChromium thin filmsen_US
dc.subjectSolar absorber multilayer filmsen_US
dc.subjectSputteringen_US
dc.subjectAntireflection coatingen_US
dc.subjectSelective absorbersen_US
dc.subjectSubstrate temperatureen_US
dc.subjectChromium (VI)en_US
dc.titleThe effects of thermal treatment under argon–oxygen ambient on the microstructure and optical properties of DC sputtered Cr thin films for selective solar absorbers applicationsen_US
dc.typePostprint Articleen_US

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