Study of local electronic structure of Er doped La3NbO7 compound thin film by EXAFS

The development of new materials is mandatory to achieve the worldwide aim of a sustainable growth. The 
efficiency is the weakness of clean energy, especially in solar based devices. The increment of absorption 
energy range in semiconductor based solar cells will provide a rise of the efficiency of photon-electron 
conversion. Up-Conversion (UC) and Down-Conversion (DC) processes are proposed as solution to increase 
the absorption range. In those processes, photons generated with energies higher or lower than the absorption 
range can produce photons with the appropriated energy belonged to absorption energy range. Rare-Earths 
based compounds have demonstrated to be suitable materials to produce UC/DC processes. Preliminary 
research about the luminescence properties of rare-earth doped La3NbO7 oxide has shown promising results in 
that conversion processes. Sputtered doped La3NbO7 thin film are grown over silicon substrate to study the 
most suitable composition and growth condition route to increase the efficiency of solar cells.