Effect of Substrate Temperature on Structural and Optical Properties of Au/SiO2 Nanocomposite Films Prepared by RF Magnetron Sputtering

Abstract

This project has been focused on the structural and optical properties respectively on the effect of indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films at different substrates temperature. The substrates temperature is varied at room temperature, 100ºC, 200ºC, 300ºC and 400 ºC as the parameter to optimize the thin films quality. ITO thin films were deposited onto the glass substrates using RF magnetron sputtering ITO (In–Sn, 90–10%) targets. This project was involved with three phases, which are thin films preparation, deposition and characterization. The thin films were characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared (UV-Vis-NIR) spectrophotometer (Perkin Elmer Lambda 750) for structural properties and optical properties. The absorption coefficient spectrum obtained shows all films exhibit very low absorption in the visible (400- 800nm) and near infrared (NIR) (>800nm) range but exhibit high absorption in the UV range. The samples show higher transmittance of more than 80% at 350 nm.