In this work, the photocatalytic properties of thin films based on titanium oxides for application on flexible glass in photovoltaic panels were presented. Thin films were prepared by gas impulse magnetron sputtering (GIMS), where the gas injection on a target was synchronized in time with the electric pulse supplying the magnetron with the Ti target. The deposition process was carried out under various Ar/O2 atmospheres (with a content of 5–8% O2). The as-deposited TiOx films were non-stoichiometric. The influence of deposition parameters on optical properties, microstructure, hardness, and elastic modulus was examined. In addition, the dependence between the oxygen content in the sputtering atmosphere and the photocatalytic activity of the coatings was examined. The scratch resistance of the coatings and their adhesion to flexible glass were also investigated. It has been shown that the GIMS technique can be used for efficient deposition of non-stoichiometric TiOx coatings on substrates sensitive to the temperature as thin flexible glass and, at the same time, characterized by high adhesion. The TiOx-based semiconductor coatings prepared in this study can be used successfully in transparent electronics and in the construction of modern photovoltaic panels due to their photocatalytic activity, high hardness, and high level of transparency.

In this work, an improved methodology of cross-sectional scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis of thin-film Ti/V/Ti multilayers was described. Multilayers with various thicknesses of the vanadium middle layer were prepared by magnetron sputtering. The differences in cross sections made by standard fracture, focused ion beam (FIB)/Ga, and plasma focused ion beam (PFIB)/Xe have been compared. For microscopic characterization, the Helios NanoLab 600i microscope and the Helios G4 CXe with the Quanta XFlash 630 energy dispersive spectroscopy detector from Bruker were used. The innovative multi-threaded approach to the SEM preparation itself, which allows us to retain information about the actual microstructure and ensure high material contrast even for elements with similar atomic numbers was proposed. The fracture technique was the most noninvasive for microstructure, whereas FIB/PFIB results in better material contrast (even than EDS). There were only subtle differences in cross sections made by FIB-Ga and PFIB-Xe, but the decrease in local amorphization or slightly better contrast was in favor of Xe plasma. It was found that reliable information about the properties of modern nanomaterials, especially multilayers, can be obtained by analyzing a two-part SEM image, where the first one is a fracture, while the second is a PFIB cross section.

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