Transition metal oxides films exhibit strong structure-property correlations which foster innovative physical properties that are not present in their bulk counterparts. This study has successfully prepared different thickness-dependent epitaxial Ti2O3 thin films on MgO (001) single crystal substrate using the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method. The results reveal a strong correlation between the crystal structure and superconductivity in Ti2O3 thin films. Synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high resolution transmission electron microscope measurements confirmed that the appearance of superconductivity is closely related to the coexistence of the cubic-Ti2O3 (γ-Ti2O3 ) and orthorhombic-Ti2O3 (o-Ti2O3) phases. Superconductivity is absent in 80 nm film, which exhibits only a single γ-Ti2O3 phase. The highest superconducting transition temperature (TC) ~ 7.2 K is achieved in 1200 nm film, which shows about 55% o-Ti2O3 phase and 45% γ-Ti2O3 phase. Room temperature Raman data suggest that Eg modes at ~ 330 cm-1 and ~430 cm-1 may associate with superconductivity, and an Eg mode at ~660 cm-1 is related to the insulating behavior observed in 80 nm film.
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