Beta-Bi 2 O 3 film photoanodes with different surface structures were prepared by oxidizing bismuth films. The physical properties were characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-visible absorbance spectra and atomic force microscopy (AFM). XRD shows that all films are beta phase crystal structure except the thinnest 12 nm film. SEM and AFM characterizations indicate that a nanoporous surface structure is generated on the surface after the film is annealed for 3 h, while the films annealed for 1 h show a dense surface. The direct band gaps vary from 2.63 to 2.88 eV, with the film thickness decreasing from 500 to 12 nm. The nanoporous surface structure film exhibits better light harvesting ability and incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency (IPCE) than the dense surface films. The IPCE (61% at 350 nm and 43% at 400 nm, 0.197 V NHE ) is the highest ever reported. The photocurrent density reaches 0.45 mA cm −2 when illuminated with a bias of 1.23 V NHE in 0.5M Na 2 SO 3 .

In this study, Mo thin films which used in Cu(Inx Ga1-x)Se2 (CIGS) thin film solar cells as back conduct were deposited on soda-lime glass substrates via DC magnetron sputtering under certain conditions. A series of Mo thin films prepared of various thicknesses was obtained in different sputtering deposition times. The microstructure, electrical resistivity and mechanical strain property of Mo thin films, which may be varied by controlling the thickness, were investigated by XRD, SEM, four probes technology and Scotch tape test. As the results showed, the thicknesses of the films increased linearly with the sputtering time. With increasing thickness, the films' crystal growth showed a change from (110) preferred orientation to (211) preferred orientation. The sheet resistance sharply reduced to 2 Ω/⇑ with the increase of (110) peak height and the resistivity linearly decreased to 0.96×10-4 Ω·cm due to the level of (110) preferred orientation. The films surface has porous (fish-like) grain morphology and intergranular voids. All the films are in a tensile state, and the inner strain decreased with the increase of the thickness.