The role of cobalt doping on the optical and structural properties of Mn3O4 nanostructured thin films obtained by SILAR technique

Cobalt doped manganese oxide thin films (Mn3O4:Co) were successfully deposited on soda lime glass substrates using SILAR technique. Mn3O4:Co thin films were characterized using XRD, SEM, Uv–VIS and Raman spectroscopy. The XRD spectra showed that thin films had substantially Hausmannite crystal structure. The preferential orientation of the pure and 0.5 at.% Co doped manganese oxide thin films (Mn3O4) was (002), but with increasing Co doping, it was detected that this preferential orientation shift towards the (211) plane. The absorbance, transmittance and optical band gap of the Mn3O4:Co thin films were determined using Uv–Vis spectroscopy and these properties of the thin films differed considerably due to cobalt doping. The optical band gap of pure Mn3O4 thin films was 2.00 eV, but on the other hand, due to the Co doping this value increased before and then decreased slightly. Optical transmittance of Mn3O4:Co films increased from 60% to 72% with the effect of Co doping. A1g mode, which is the characteristic vibration peak of Mn3O4 films, was confirmed for pure and doped Mn3O4 thin films at a wavelength of 658 nm.