Abstract
•Ba:CdO nanostructured films were synthesized using the spray pyrolysis technique.•Ba contents play a great effect on the optical properties of the doped CdO film.•Eg value is blue-shifted from 2.78 eV (neat CdO) to 3.03 eV (10 wt% of Ba:CdO).•The increase in Eg value of Ba:CdO is interpreted in terms of the Burstein-Moss effect.•Ba:CdO films could effectively compete well-known wide bandgap semiconductors.
In this study, the optical properties of CdO nanostructured films have been tailored via barium doping for optical windows applications. Barium-doped cadmium oxide (Ba:CdO) nanostructured films (nFs) were synthesized using spray pyrolysis technique. The prepared nFs were examined using X-ray diffractometer, FT-IR and UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometers. The XRD analysis reveals that the plain and Ba:CdO nanostructured films exhibit cubic crystalline structures. FT-IR analysis exposes that plain CdO absorption bands locate in the wavenumber range from 400 cm−1 to 1200 cm−1. The UV-Vis-NIR spectra analysis exhibits that Ba content plays a significant effect on the optical transmittance, bandgap (Eg), refractive index, dielectric constants and optical conductivity of CdO films in the Vis-NIR regions. The obtained Eg value is blue-shifted from 2.78 eV (plain CdO) to 3.03 eV (10 wt% of Ba:CdO). This increase in Eg value of Ba:CdO nanostructured films is interpreted in terms of the Burstein-Moss effect. The obtained novel results introduce Ba:CdO nanostructured films as serious competitors to the well-known wide bandgap semiconductors for different applications.