Study of Structure Densification in TiO₂Coatings Prepared by Magnetron Sputtering under Low Pressure of Oxygen Plasma Discharge

Abstract

Current work presents results of studies on structural and optical properties of the TiO2 thin films prepared by reactive magnetron sputtering. Oxide thin films were deposited from metallic targets using oxygen gas only instead of usually used mixture of Ar-O2. Additionally, an increased amplitude of unipolar pulses powering the magnetron has been applied. It is shown that all prepared coatings were stoichiometric and by changing only the discharge voltage it is possible to influence the resulting structural phase and optical properties of prepared thin films. Depending on conditions of magnetron powering, TiO2 thin films had either the anatase structure with refraction index n = 2.1 (λ = 500 nm) or a high temperature stable rutile structure with n = 2.52 (λ = 500 nm).

Investigation of structural, optical and electrical properties of (Ti,Nb)Ox thin films deposited by high energy reactive magnetron sputtering

“…The sputtering process was carried out at a low pressure (0.1 Pa), in reactive atmosphere using high purity oxygen (99.99 %) as a working and reactive gas. The low pressure of the sputtering allowed us to obtain a longer mean free path, which enabled oxygen ions to bombard the target surface with higher energy [12]. As a result the deposition rate and ion flux decreased.…”

Correlation of Photocatalysis and Photoluminescence Effect in Relation to the Surface Properties of TiO2:Tb Thin Films

“…Proper selection of the magnetron sputtering process parameters enables the densification of thin-film crystal structure. The use of the modified process can result in nanocrystalline structure of deposited films with crystallites sizes varied from few to several nanometers [35,36]. Densification of the structure is obtained by an increase in the sputtered species energy, that condenses at the substrate surface.…”