RETRACTED ARTICLE: Growth and Characterization of Tungsten Oxide Thin Films using the Reactive Magnetron Sputtering System

Abstract

WO3 thin film is one of the most important and applied metal oxide semiconductors that have attracted the scientist’s attention in recent decades. WO3 thin films by two different methods: reactive and non-reactive RF magnetron sputtering deposited on soda lime glass. The effect of presence and absence of oxygen gas in system and RF power on structural, morphological and optical properties of thin films were investigated. The XRD analysis of the films shows the amorphous structure. Spectrophotometer analysis and calculation show that the optical properties of reactive sputtered layers were better than the non-reactive sputtered thin films. By changing deposition parameters, over 70 % transmission achieved for WO3 films. The results showed that reactive sputtering method improved the optical properties of layers and increased band gap up to 3.49 eV and on the other hand reduced roughness of thin films. On the whole, presence of oxygen in the chamber during sputtering improved properties of WO3 thin films.