Morphology and electrical properties of titanium oxide nanometric multilayers deposited by DC reactive sputtering

Abstract

Thin films of titanium oxides TiO x ( x=0.7…2) can be produced by DC reactive magnetron sputtering with O 2 and/or H 2O as a reactive gas. In this work we investigate the deposition of nanometric multilayers and thin films of modulated composition. Samples are characterized by electrical resistivity measurements, optical measurements, X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy. The influence of the sputtering parameters on the morphology and on the electrical properties of the multilayers is reported. The analysis of the electrical and optical properties of the TiO 2–TiO x multilayer system will contribute to a better understanding of the doping mechanism of nano-crystalline titanium dioxide by the grain boundaries.