Photoresponse of p-type zinc-doped iron(III) oxide thin films.

Stable zinc-doped iron(III) oxide thin films that exhibit p-type behavior were synthesized by spray pyrolytic deposition (SPD) on conducting indium-doped tin oxide-coated glass substrate. The highest photocurrent density of 1.1 mA/cm2 was observed at an illumination intensity of 40 mW/cm2 at -0.8 V vs Pt for zinc-doped p-Fe2O3 samples prepared at an optimum substrate temperature of 663 K using an optimum spray time of 70 s. A quantum efficiency of 21.1% at 325 nm was found for SPD samples prepared using a dopant concentration of 0.0088 M zinc nitrate hexahydrate. X-ray diffraction results showed structures of alpha-Fe2O3 and ZnFe2O4. A direct band gap energy of 2.2 eV was found from monochromatic photocurrent density data and agrees closely with the band gap obtained from UV-vis absorption. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results also confirm the presence of zinc dopant (4.0 atomic %) in thin films of zinc-doped p-Fe2O3.