The effect of molybdenum dopant on rare earth metal chalcogenide material

This study used electrochemical deposition to make CeTe and CeTe-doped molybdenum. We deposited the films at varying concentrations of the dopant; (0.1–0.3) mol%. All the solutions used to deposit the thin films were prepared in distilled water. Adding molybdenum to cerium telluride boosts absorption rates. Film thickness decreased from 117.09 to 164.31 nm, lowering resistivity (11.24 to 08.23 ῼ.cm) and increasing conductivity (0.08 to 0.12 S/m). The pattern exhibit diffraction peaks at planes (111), (120), (121), and (131), which correspond to respective angles of 23.216°, 27.744°, 32.152°, and 36.182° The FTO substrates used for the synthesis may have been the cause of the unindexed peaks. The bandgap energy of cerium telluride is 1.20 eV, which narrows to 1.49 – 1.60 eV as molybdenum dopant concentration rises. The cerium telluride and CeTe-doped molybdenum have a lattice constant of 6.6490 and 6.6298 Å respectively. Cerium telluride doped molybdenum is a potential candidate for photovoltaic application.