The effect of SiO2 on TiO2 up-conversion photoluminescence film

Abstract In order to increase the photoelectric conversion efficiency of silicon solar cell, the up-conversion film has been tried to enhance the response of the solar cells to the infrared band. Yb3+, Er3+ co-doped SiO2/TiO2 composite films with different Ti/Si molar ratio were deposited on the glass substrate with sol–gel method and spin-coating technique. The effect of different molar ratio of Ti/Si on the film’s morphology and optical properties was investigated. The morphology, the absorption spectra and photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the film were tested and analyzed. After the film was annealed at 900 °C, the XRD diffraction pattern indicated that rare earths ions have evenly dispersed into the matrix lattice. The FT-IR showed that Si ions entered into the lattice of titanium dioxide, and the Ti–O–Si bonds came into being. When the film pumped with a laser of 980 nm, there were a dominant red emission and several weak green peaks. In addition, with the increase of the mole ratio of Si/Ti, the intensity of the film’s up-conversion luminescence increases at first and then decreases. When the molar ratio of Si/Ti is 1/8, the sample had the highest intensity of up-conversion luminescence.