Effect of Neodymium doping on the structural, morphological, optical and electrical properties of copper oxide thin films

In the present work un-doped and neodymium (Nd)-doped copper oxide thin films were deposited using nebulizer spray pyrolysis technique. The XRD pattern confirmed, the Cu₂O phase for the films with cubic crystal structure. The calculated crystallite size of the Cu₂O thin films are 36, 34, 28, and 23 nm respectively for 0, 1, 3 and 5% of Nd doping level. In 5% Nd doping the voids were reduced and the film showed high absorption in the visible region due to the maximum thickness. The band gap values are 2, 1.94, 1.87 and 1.82 eV for the 0, 1, 3 and 5% of Nd respectively. The emission peak at ~ 617 nm was observed for all the films in PL spectra which corresponds to copper impurity of the deposited films. The low resistivity about 0.85 × 10² Ω cm was found for the 5% Nd doped copper oxide thin film. The open circuit voltage (V_oc) was 0.39 V and short circuit current (I_sc) was 1.1641 × 10⁻⁴ A for the 5% Nd doped Cu₂O thin film.