Influence of Material Composition on Structural and Optical Properties of HfO2-TiO2 Mixed Oxide Coatings

In this paper the influence of material composition on the structural, surface and optical properties of HfO2-TiO2 mixed oxide coatings was investigated and discussed. Five sets of thin films were deposited using reactive magnetron sputtering: HfO2, TiO2 and three sets of mixed HfO2-TiO2 coatings with various titanium content. The change in the material composition had a significant influence on the structural, surface and optical properties. All of the deposited coatings, except for (Hf0.55Ti0.45)O-x, were nanocrystalline with crystallites ranging from 6.7 nm to 10.8 nm in size. Scanning electron microscopy measurements revealed that surface of nanocrystalline thin films consisted of grains with different shapes and sizes. Based on optical transmission measurements, it was shown that thin films with higher titanium content were characterized by a higher cut-off wavelength, refractive index and lower optical band gap energy. The porosity and packing density were also determined.