Younes Lablali¹, Rachid Oubaki¹, Anas Ghailane², Jones Alami¹, Mohammed Makha^1
1University Mohammed VI Polytechnic (UM6P), Benguerir, Morocco>
²Avaluxe Coating Technologies GmbH & Co. KG, Fürth, Germany>
In this work, TiO_x thin films were successfully deposited on crystalline (100) silicon and glass substrates using reactive HiPIMS and reactive dcMS techniques at room temperature using metallic Ti target. The influence of reactive gas at different oxygen flow rates on the structural, morphological, and optical properties of TiO_x coatings was examined using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and UV-visible spectroscopy, respectively. From the XRD patterns, Titania films deposited using HiPIMS reveals a structure with mixture of anatase and rutile phases, while films deposited using DcMS consisted of pure anatase structure. Using TRIM calculations, we were able to evaluate the average energy of particles reaching the growing film in both HiPIMS and DcMS to confirm the existing structures in the deposited films. Moreover, the grain size of the growing films using HiPIMS present lower values than those obtained using DcMS which were supported by the SEM images. In addition, the sputtered films using HiPIMS were smoother compared to the films obtained using DcMS. From the elemental composition results, the HiPIMS-grown films are all over-stoichiometric, while DcMS-grown films exhibit a sub-stoichiometric behavior below 14 sccm, and over-stoichiometric behavior after this value of QO₂ flow rate. Optical transmittance and optical band gap of TiO_x films deposited at different oxygen flow rates using HiPIMS were analysed using UV – vis spectroscopy.