Influence of substrate temperatures on structural, morphological and optical properties of Rf–sputtered anatase TiO2 films

Abstract EN

In this investigation, TiO2 thin films were deposited on glass substrates at varying substrate temperatures from room temperature to 300 °C by radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering at an elevated sputtering pressure of 3 Pa.

As-deposited TiO2 films were characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), field emission Auger electron microscopy (FEAES), and UV-visible-NIR spectrophotometry.

The XRD results reveal that all the as-deposited films possessing the anatine structure and crystalliniuy of TiO2 films appears to deteriorate slightly at higher substrate temperatures.

The crystallite size of the as-deposited films at different substrate temperatures is ~ 44 nm, which shows insignificant variation.

AFM images exhibit a similar type of nodular morphology in the as-grown films.

TiO2 films deposited at different substrate temperatures exhibit high visible transmittance and a high refractive index ranging from 2.31 to 2.37 at a wavelength of 550 nm.

The optical band gap of the films has been estimated to be in the range from 3.39 to 3.42 eV.