Effect of Oxygen Flow Rate and Post Annealing on Vanadium Oxide Thin Films Prepared by DC Pulse Magnetron Sputtering

Abstract

In this work, we investigated V2O5 thin films prepared by a DC pulse reactive magnetron sputtering at ambient conditions. The effects of oxygen flow rates during the film deposition and post annealing in air atmosphere were explored. The V2O5 thin films were sputtered from vanadium target onto silicon wafer and glass slide substrates at room temperature. The as-deposited V2O5 thin films were annealed at 200°C under air atmosphere. The films were then examined for their crystallinity, physical microstructures, and optical transmission. The crystallinity and morphology of the films were investigated by grazing incident x-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, and field-emission scanning electron microscopy. The optical transmission was determined by UV-Vis Spectrophotometer. The results showed that the as-deposited films were amorphous, whereas the post annealed films indicated V2O5 phase in all samples. The increase in the oxygen flow rates during the deposition led to the decrease in the deposition rate, film thickness, and film surface roughness. In addition, the oxygen flow can increase the average transmission of the V2O5 thin films. The effects of the annealing treatment of the optical transmission spectra will be discussed.