CHARACTERISTICS AND OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF NITROGEN IONS IMPLANTED TiO2 THIN FILM PREPARED BY REACTIVE DC SPUTTERING TECHNIQUE

This study reports on the properties of Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) thin films fabricated by Reactive DC sputtering technique on glass substrate. TiO2 thin films were implanted with several doses of N+ ions namely; (2x 10(15), 1 x 10(16) and 1 x10(17) ions/cm(2)) using homemade implantation equipment. The optical properties of N+ ions implanted TiO2 thin films examined by UV-Vis spectrophotometry. The transparency of the N+ ion implanted TiO2 decreased with increasing of N+ ion dosage while the absorption spectrum was shifted toward visible region. The band-gap energy of N+ ion implanted TiO2 exhibited a decrease with various doses from 3.15 eV to 2.52 eV. The intensity of diffraction peak A(101) and R(110) decreased specially at the dose (1 x10(17) ions/cm(2)). XRD and SEM analyses indicated a degeneration of the crystal quality.