Effect of Annealing on Structural and Optical Properties of Pulsed Laser Deposited Titanium Dioxide Thin Films

Abstract

TiO2 is a widely studied material for many important applications in areas such as environmental purification, photocatalyst, gas sensors, cancer therapy and high effect solar cell. However, investigations demonstrated that the properties and applications of titanium oxide films depend upon the nature of the crystalline phases present in the films, i.e. anatase and rutile phases. We report on the pulsed laser deposition of high quality TiO2 thin films. Pulsed Laser deposition of TiO2 thin films were performed in different ambient viz. oxygen, argon and vacuum, using a second harmonic of Nd:YAG laser of 6 ns pulse width. These deposited films of TiO2 were further annealed for 5hrs in air at different temperatures. TiO2 thin films were characterized using x-ray diffraction, SEM, photoluminescence, transmittance and reflectance. We observed effect of annealing over structural, morphological and optical properties of TiO2 thin films. The anatase phase of as-deposited TiO2 thin films is found to change into rutile phase with increased annealing temperature. Increase in crystalline behaviour of thin films with post-annealing temperature is also observed. Surface morphology of TiO2 thin films is dependent upon ambient pressure and post- annealing temperature. TiO2 thin films are found to be optically transparent with very low reflectivity hence will be suitable for antireflection coating applications.