Bismuth oxide with the chemical formula of Bi2O3 is one the most important bismuth compounds.
Bismuth oxide has been investigated extensively due to its optical and electrical properties such as large energy gap (from 2 to 4 eV), refractive index and high oxygen ion conductivity at high and medium temperatures.
These properties make bismuth oxide one of the most perspective candidates for application in optoelectronics, solar cells and solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). Bismuth oxide has a few main polymorphic forms that are known as α, β, γ, δ. All polymorphs have different crystal structure and various optical, electrical and mechanical properties. Only two of them, the low temperature monoclinic α-phase and high temperature face-centered cubic δ-phase are stable. The other phases are metastable.
Magnetron sputtering is a widespread method because of high deposition rate, dense and highly adhesive films, and possibility of using commercially available large area deposition systems. You may find a paper written about magnetron sputtering in the link given below:
Bismuth oxide based materials exhibit high ionic conductivity and have been proposed as suitable materials for electrolyte in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC’s) which are promising materials for the future and greener and more efficient energy sources, and oxygen sensors. Additionally, bismuth oxides exhibit interesting properties, such as high refractive index, high electric permittivity, and photoluminescence. For these reasons, this material has been widely used in applied fields like gas sensors, optical layers, and the production of ceramic glasses. Furthermore, bismuth oxides have shown to be excellent photo-catalysts in water dissociation and decontamination under visible light radiation. Bismuth containing hetero-metallic oxides is a potential candidate for a wide variety of applications in the microelectronics industry due to the high mobility of charge carriers, and the large mean free path for electrons. Also, semi-metal bismuth thin films become a semiconductor at a critical thickness of around 30 nm.
You may give an order of bismuth oxide sputtering targets from the links given on the table below:
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