Characterization and optical properties of TiO2 prepared by pulsed laser deposition

The contribution reports on fabrication and characterization of TiO₂ thin films on Si substrate. The TiO₂ thin films are used for photonic devices in optical communication systems. The most important parameter for the waveguide structures is the refractive index. The crystalline TiO₂ polymorphs can have different refractive index depending on the structure phase, which is technology dependent. The waveguide structures was prepared by pulsed laser deposition using 248 nm KrF laser source and targets of Ti or rutile in oxygen atmosphere. The optical characterization were done using spectroscopic ellipsometry providing the information about electron band gap values and determining the optical parameters (thickness and refractive index) of prepared TiO₂ thin films. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) and secondary electron microscopy (SEM) was done to verify the vertical and chemical structure.