Growth and Characterization of Reactive DC Magnetron Sputtered Aluminum Titanate Thin Films

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Aluminum titanate (Al 2 TiO 5 ) films were deposited on to unheated p-silicon and quartz substrates by reactive DC magnetron sputtering of Al 67 Ti 33 target at an oxygen flow rate of 8 sccm and at sputter pressure of 2x10 -3 mbar. The as-deposited films were annealed in oxygen ambient at 600 o C. The as-deposited and annealed films were characterized for chemical composition core level binding energies, crystallographic structure and optical properties. The asdeposited films were amorphous in nature while those annealed in oxygen were of polycrystalline with orthorhombic structure. Atomic force micrographs confirmed the fine grain growth of the films and the size of the grain increased in annealed films. The films showed optical transmittance of above 85 % in the visible region. The optical band gap of the films decreased from 4.58 eV to 4.50 eV.