Title: TiO₂ thin films studied by FTIR, AFM and spectroscopic ellipsometry

Authors: Y. Bouachiba; F. Hanini; A. Bouabellou; F. Kermiche; A. Taabouche; M. Bouafia; S. Amara; S. Sahli; K. Boukheddaden

Addresses: Thin Films and Interfaces Laboratory, University Mentouri of Constantine 1, 25000 Constantine, Algeria ' Thin Films and Interfaces Laboratory, University Mentouri of Constantine 1, 25000 Constantine, Algeria ' Thin Films and Interfaces Laboratory, University Mentouri of Constantine 1, 25000 Constantine, Algeria ' Thin Films and Interfaces Laboratory, University Mentouri of Constantine 1, 25000 Constantine, Algeria ' Thin Films and Interfaces Laboratory, University Mentouri of Constantine 1, 25000 Constantine, Algeria ' Laboratory of Applied Optics, Ferhat Abbas University, Setif, Algérie ' Laboratory of Applied Optics, Ferhat Abbas University, Setif, Algérie ' Laboratory of Microsystem and Instrumentation, Electronic Department, Engineering Faculty, Constantine 1 University, 25017 Constantine, Algeria ' Condensed Material Studies Group, Versailles University-CNRS, 45, United States's Avenue, 78035, France

Abstract: TiO₂ thins films were prepared on Si (100) substrates by a sol-gel dip coating process. Effect of the annealing temperatures in different atmospheres (air and O₂) on the properties of the films has been examined. FTIR results indicated a dominant feature centred around 438 cm⁻¹, which is characteristic of the anatase TiO₂. This peak is quite sharp at higher temperature, indicating the film is well-crystallised, especially for the film annealed at 500°C under oxygen. The bands at 3,400 and 1,620 cm⁻¹ represented the stretching and bending vibrations of O-H hydroxyl groups, and those bands could be normally reduced by the calcination process. The morphology of the films annealed at 500°C under air and oxygen showed relatively uniform surface, densely packed nanoparticles and quite low mean average roughness values. The determination of the refractive index, packing density and the band gap by the ellipsometry is presented.

Keywords: anatase; Fourier transform infrared; FTIR; O-H hydroxyl groups; nanoparticles; atomic force microscopy; AFM; ellipsometry; nanotechnology; TiO2; titania; titanium oxide; thin films; sol gel; annealing temperature; refractive index; packing density; band gap.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNP.2013.054992

International Journal of Nanoparticles, 2013 Vol.6 No.2/3, pp.169 - 177

Published online: 31 Mar 2014 *

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