Effects of Continuous and Discontinuous Deposition Time in Reactive Direct Current Magnetron Sputtering of Titanium Dioxide Thin Films

Abstract

The effect of continuous and discontinuous deposition time on the properties of TiO2 thin films deposited by reactive direct current magnetron sputtering (DCMS) on glass substrates was investigated. The deposition processes were designed for a condition of continuous deposition time D1 (60 min) and three conditions of discontinuous deposition time D2 (30 min × 2 times), D3 (15 min × 4 times), and D4 (1 min × 60 times). The crystal structure, surface morphology, and hydrophilicity of TiO2 thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscope, and water contact angle method, respectively. It was found that the increasing of discontinuous deposition time (conditions from D1 to D4) shows the changing of grain size from big grain size with spherical shape to small grain size with oval shape. The crystallinity of TiO2 films decrease with increasing the discontinuous deposition time. The water contact angles also decrease as a function of increasing discontinuous deposition time. These results may be explained from the accumulation of heat on the substrate which affected the phase composition and surface morphology of TiO2 thin films.