Fe-doped TiO2 thin films

The reactive sputtering technique was used to obtain undoped and Fe-doped TiO2 thin films deposited on glass substrates. At 250 °C substrate temperature, undoped TiO2 films crystallize in a mixed rutile/anatase phase, while Fe-doped films exhibit the rutile phase only. Presence of Fe3+ ions into the TiO2 lattice is suggested by the intensity variation of forbidden 1s → 3d transitions between the Ti and Fe K-edges. Ti K-edge EXAFS data are assessed to a mixture of the two kinds of surroundings, a rutile-like crystalline phase, identified also by X-ray diffraction, and a nanosized or amorphous anatase-like surrounding. The local atomic order about Fe atoms is quite different and could be related also to an amorphous phase. The Swanepoel method is used to obtain the dispersion of the refractive index below the interband absorption edge. The dispersion energy, the single-oscillator energy and the coordination number of the Ti atoms are evaluated using the single-oscillator model (Wemple–DiDomenico).