ABSTRACT
The present article reports novel opportunities of diffuse reflectance (DR) spectroscopy extended through the use of a cryostat accessory for UV-vis-NIR spectrophotometers to investigate temperature dependences of DR spectra at the fundamental absorption edge of semiconductors at T = 90-600 K. Examined are rutile TiO2, a photochromic rutile TiO2 with strong absorption in the visible region, and the halide double perovskite Cs2AgBiBr6 that exhibited two optical band-to-band transitions in low-temperature DR spectra. Also reported are DR spectral and kinetics measurements of the separation of photogenerated charge carriers in various trap sites, their thermostimulated detrapping and their recombination in two different photochromic materials. The similarity between absorption and temperature-programmed annealing (TPA) spectra induced in the UV and Vis regions yielded physical evidence of the photo-formation of charge carriers upon Vis-light excitation of intrinsic defects (F-type centers) in yellow rutile TiO2. High-temperature oxidative/reductive treatments of samples, together with spectral and kinetics measurements were performed in situ with the accessory. Results led to assigning color centers in yellow TiO2 to Ti3+ centers as deep electron traps, and to the establishment of several types of Ti3+-based color centers that include extra-negatively charged Ti δ+ centers (3 > δ > 2). Photochromic occurrences are also elucidated in the Bi-doped perovskite CsPbBr3 under illumination in the region of intrinsic absorption and annealing of photoinduced absorption at T = 200-400 K. These phenomena are described in terms of the photogeneration of charge carriers followed by their trapping, which yielded Bi-related electron color centers responsible for the photoinduced absorption and for the thermostimulated detrapping of photoholes that ultimately recombine with the trapped electrons. The establishment of photochromism in the perovskites may lead to a further understanding of photoinduced and dark reversible phenomena in halide perovskites and halide perovskite-based solar cells.
ABSTRACT
This article reports an in situ UV-Vis-NIR diffuse reflectance (DR) spectroscopic and kinetic study of the photoformation and thermal annealing of light absorbing electronic point defects (color centers) in photochromic TiO2 in the temperature range 90-720 K using a simple laboratory-made cryostat-type accessory (for a Cary 5000 spectrophotometer equipped with an integrating sphere). The accessory also allowed for UV-Vis-NIR DR studies to be undertaken either in vacuum or in an oxygen atmosphere at significantly high temperatures (to 720 K) to assess dark chemical events occurring in photochromic titania with the participation of color centers. The DR spectral and kinetic measurements provided the opportunity to examine the separation of photoinduced charge carriers at traps and thermally stimulated carrier detrapping and recombination, as well as the response of color centers to oxidative/reductive treatments of photochromic TiO2. Kinetic results also demonstrate the applicability of the fabricated DR accessory as a high-temperature reaction cell in the systematic study of the principal regularities in the formation and destruction of color centers in titania at various temperatures and gaseous atmospheres.
