Low temperature deposited nano-structured vanadium oxide thin films for uncooled infrared detectors

A novel process of room temperature ion beam sputtering deposition of vanadium oxide films and low temperature post annealing for uncooled infrared detectors was proposed in this work. VO_x thin films with relatively low square resistance (70 K Omega / square) and large temperature coefficient of resistance (more than 3%/K) at room temperature were fabricated using this low temperature process which was very compatible with the process of uncooled infrared detectors based on micromachined technology. Furthermore, chemical composition and film surface have been characterized using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) respectively. The results showed that the main composition of the processed thin films was V₂O₅ and the thin films were in the process of crystallization.