No abstract

We report on the photoluminescence (PL) of anatase TiO2 thin films caused by the addition of ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles prepared by the radio-frequency sputtering method. X-ray diffraction and PL analyses illustrate that there is a very strong band of PL from the anatase TiO2 thin films caused by the addition of ZnFe2O4 at both room and low temperatures; the anatase TiO2 thin films without this addition show no PL. There is a very weak band of PL from rutile TiO2 thin films. The strong PL band for the anatase TiO2 thin films with the addition of ZnFe2O4 may be due to increased localization of impurity- and defect-trapped excitons.

The well known 'crystal seed' theory is first applied in this work to prepare TiO 2 film: a high refractive index rutile TiO 2 film is grown by electron beam evaporation on the rutile seed formed by 1100uC annealing. The average n is larger than 2?4, by far the highest in all the authors' TiO 2 films. The films are characterised by optical properties, microstructure and surface morphologies. It is found that the refractive index shows positive relation with the crystal structure, grain size, and packing density and roughness of the film. The film has lower density of granularity and nodule defects on the surface than those of the film deposited by magnetron sputtering. The result shows attractive application in complex filter and laser coatings.