Analysis of Semiconductors through UV-Visible Techniques: Band Gap Studies

Semiconducting materials are widely studied for use in solar energy and photocatalytic applications, among other areas of interest. For applications which involve the use of light, it is important to understand the energy needed to promote electrons from the valence band to the conduction band. This band gap energy can often be on par with the energy of photons in the UV-Visible region. As such, UV-Visible spectroscopic techniques can be of use when assessing the band structure of semiconducting materials.

Tauc plots, which are derived from the UV-Visible spectrum, provides the needed information to estimate the bandgap energy. In conjunction with computation and experimental results, the information gathered from the Tauc plot can aid in assessing the relative position of the valence and conduction bands. In this webinar, the use of UV-Visible reflectance and transmittance measurements for band gap analysis will be discussed in detail. Additionally, considerations needed when analyzing semiconducting samples with these methods with be outlined.