Influence of surface roughness on the semiconducting properties of oxide films formed on 304 stainless steel

Oxide films were formed at 350 degrees C in borate buffer solution on AISI 304 stainless steel priory abraded with wet SiC paper of different grit size. The films were characterised by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and studied by capacitance, impedance, and photocurrent measurements. The images obtained by AFM microscopy show the evolution of the surface roughness of the films with increasing grit size. Capacitance measurements show that, in all cases, the electronic structure of the films is comparable to that of a p-n heterojunction. This structure is due to the development of space charge layers in the outer iron oxide region at the film/electrolyte interface and in the inner chromium oxide region at the film/metal interface. However, donor and acceptor densities are closely related to the surface roughness via the grit size of the wet SiC paper. An increase in capacitance leading to higher doping densities is manifested by an increase in grit size. These parameters are also frequency dependent. An investigation of the frequency dispersion in relation to the evolution of the surface roughness was performed by analysing the Bode plots through the impedance measurements. The photocurrent results, obtained for the oxide films formed on the different abraded AISI 304, show an increasing photoresponse with decreasing grit size. In spite of this, a constant value of the band gap energy was obtained whatever the oxide film considered. The photocurrent response near the absorption edge is also discussed. The photocurrent response at fixed wavelength and as a function of the applied potential is also influenced by the grit size.