Modeling the reactive sputter deposition of N-doped TiO2 for application in dye-sensitized solar cells: Effect of the O2 flow rate on the substitutional N concentration

In this paper an original numerical model, based on the standard Berg model, was used to simulate the growth mechanism of N-doped TiO2 deposited at different O2 concentrations in the reactive gas mixture. For evaluation of the numerical model, films were deposited in the same conditions as those used in the numerical approach. Films were analyzed by profilometry, optical spectrophotometry, Rutherford back-scattering spectroscopy (RBS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Results show that oxidation of TiN plays a fundamental role for incorporation of substitutional N in the TiO2 lattice and the overall structure of the films, as well as, the chemical composition obtained from numerical model is in agreement to experimental data.