Raman Study of Nanocrystalline-Doped Ceria Oxide Thin Films

Samarium-doped ceria (SDC) and gadolinium-doped ceria (GDC) thin films were formed by e-beam vapor deposition on SiO<sub>2</sub> substrate, changing the deposition rate and substrate temperature during the deposition. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energ...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Nursultan Kainbayev, Mantas Sriubas, Darius Virbukas, Zivile Rutkuniene, Kristina Bockute, Saltanat Bolegenova, Giedrius Laukaitis
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-04-01
Series:Coatings
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6412/10/5/432
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Summary:Samarium-doped ceria (SDC) and gadolinium-doped ceria (GDC) thin films were formed by e-beam vapor deposition on SiO<sub>2</sub> substrate, changing the deposition rate and substrate temperature during the deposition. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive X-Ray spectrometry (EDS) were employed in order to investigate the structure ad morphology of the films. A single Raman peak describing the structure of undoped CeO<sub>2</sub> was observed at a frequency of 466 cm<sup>−1</sup>. Doping of cerium oxide with rare-earth elements shifted the peak to lower frequencies (for Sm—462 cm<sup>−1</sup>). This shift occurs due to the increased number of oxygen vacancies in doped cerium oxide and it depends on the size and concentration factor of the dopant. It was found that wavenumbers and their intensity differed for the investigated samples, even though the peaks resembled each other in shape. The indicated bands for doped ceria originated as a result of the Raman regime (F2g) of fluorite dioxide associated with the space group (Fm3m). The observed peak‘s position shifting to a lower frequency range demonstrates the symmetric vibrations of oxygen ions around Ce<sup>4+</sup> ions in octahedra CeO<sub>8</sub>. Raman shift to the lower frequencies for the doped samples has two reasons: an increase in oxygen vacancies caused by doping cerium oxide with rare-earth materials and the size factor, i.e., the change in frequency Δ<i>ω</i> associated with the change in the lattice constant Δ<i>a</i>.
ISSN:2079-6412