Properties of TiOxfilms prepared by electron-beam evaporation of titanium and titanium suboxides

The titanium suboxides TiO, Ti2O3, and Ti3O5are widely used to produce films of titanium dioxide by reactive evaporation. If they are evaporated in high vacuum, however, they yield absorbing TiOxfilms with a transmission color varying between blue and gray. We investigated the specific properties of these TiOxfilms. TiO, Ti2O3, Ti3O5, and titanium metal were evaporated in high vacuum upon glass substrates at 25° and 250 °C. Differences in chemical composition, transmission and reflection, color, stress, and abrasion resistance of these films, depending on the starting material and the substrate temperature, were evaluated. © 2003 Optical Society of America.