The effect of various oxidation temperatures on structure of Ag-TiO2 thin film

In this research, Ag/TiO2 thin films have been deposited on quartz and silicon (Si) substrates at room temperature. In the first step, titanium thin films were deposited on quartz and silicon substrates by electron beam evaporation technique and subsequent annealing under the oxygen flow in the electrical furnace at various temperatures for preparation of Titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin films. In the second step, Ag nanolayer was sputtered on TiO2 thin films by DC magnetron sputtering technique. The techniques of X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were applied for characterization of structural and morphological properties of Ag/TiO2 thin films deposited on quartz and silicon substrates. The results shows that the structure of TiO2 films changed from amorphous to crystalline by varying the oxidation temperature, that can effectively influenced on the surface morphology of Ag-TiO2 thin films and the size of Ag nanoparticles. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.