The RF power effect on the surface morphology of titanium dioxide (TiO2) film

In this paper, we present the influence of deposition process parameter on the morphological properties of titanium dioxide (TiO₂). Thin film of TiO₂ was deposited on Si (100) substrate using the reactive Radio Frequency (RF) sputtering technique with different RF power. The XRD analysis showed that only Anatase structure was obtained during low RF power deposition, while both; Anatase and Rutile structure were obtained at high RF power. It was also observed that when the RF power is increased from 100W to 300W, the surface roughness and the particle size of the TiO₂ film measured by using AFM were shown to be decreased from 0.39 to 0.25nm and 68.3 to 59.6nm respectively. Consequently, the diffuse transmittance measured using UV-vis spectroscopy shown degradation of transmittance percentage from 85% to 60% and the E_g also reduce from 3.24eV to 2.55eV. Moreover, the small particle size with the acceptable surface roughness, the less percentage of transmittance and the reduction of the band gap were successfully achieved.