Visible Light Activity of Nitrogen-Doped TiO[sub 2] Thin Films Grown by Atomic Layer Deposition

This article demonstrates that a visible light active N-doped film can be fabricated by atomic layer deposition (ALD) with titanium chloride and ammonia water as the precursors. A 1.60 atom % N-doping anatase film has been successfully grown on an -silicon substrate. The ratio of substitutional N doping to the total N doping as high as 70% is achieved that extends the long-wavelength cutoff of to . Results from the analysis of incident photon-to-current efficiency and potential-dependent photocurrent density suggest that the visible light activity of ALD N-doped films can be further improved by reducing the carrier recombination rate and increasing optical absorption efficiency.