Structural and optical properties of VOx thin films

Abstract

VOx thin films were deposited on Corning glass, fused silica and Ti foils by means of rf reactive sputtering from a metallic vanadium target. Argon-oxygen gas mixtures of different compositions controlled by the flow rates were used for sputtering. Influence of the oxygen partial pressure in the sputtering chamber on the structural and optical properties of thin films has been investigated. Structural properties of as-sputtered thin films were studied by X-ray diffraction at glancing incidence, GIXD. Optical transmittance and reflectance spectra were recordedwith a Lambda 19 Perkin-Elmer double spectrophotometer. Thickness of the films was determined from the profilometry. It has been confirmed by XRD that the deposited films are composed mainly of V2O5 phase. The estimated optical band gap of 2.5 eV corresponds to V2O5.