Spectroscopic characterization of thermally evaporated oxovanadium(IV) tetraphenylporphyrin thin films

Thin films of oxovanadium(IV) tetraphenylporphyrin (VOTPP) were prepared on quartz substrates by using thermal evaporation technique. The surface morphology and x-ray diffraction analysis of the VOTPP thin films were investigated. The micrographs of atomic force microscope of the films reveled nanostructure formation. The spectroscopic measurements of the transmittance and reflectance for VOTPP films were recorded in the spectrum range 190 –2000 nm, and from which many optical constants such as refractive index, extinction index and dielectric constant were determined. The absorption spectrum of VOTPP film showed an intense Soret band, two electronic quasi-states (Q-band) and two other bands (N and L) extended over the UV–Vis spectral region. The type of electronic transition bands of VOTPP films showed indirect allowed. The values of optical energies band-gaps were determined to be 1.89, 2.15 and 2.61 eV, in addition to Urbach tail energy was 0.044 eV. Furthermore, Wemple-DiDomenico model was applied to a normal dispersion region of the refractive index spectrum in order to extract many dispersion parameters such single oscillator energy, dispersion energy, infinite dielectric constant and lattice dielectric constant. The present spectroscopic results reveals that the thin films of VOTPP could be utilized as promising absorbing layers in energy conversion devices.