UV Absorptance of Titanium Dioxide Thin Films by Plasma Enhanced Deposition from Mixtures of Oxygen and Titanium-Tetrakis-Isopropoxide

A low pressure radio frequency discharge was used to deposit films by mixtures of oxygen and titanium (IV) isopropoxide (TTIP) at powers of 200 W on films of polyethylene-terephthalat and samples of quartz glass. In the non-thermal plasma, films of rather pure TiO2 could be deposited as revealed by X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy. Besides the film growth rate and the chemical composition, the spectral behaviour of the spectral transmittance of visually transparent films was determined in the range from 200 to 500 nm. Furthermore, the absorptance of films has been derived at characteristic spectral positions of the transmission spectra of the films. Accordingly, cut-off wavelength was found to increase with deposition time from 5 to 10 min as well as with the concentration of TTIP in a range below 1.7%. At 310 nm, the spectral absorption coefficient (extinction coefficient × concentration) was 12 μm−1. While keeping other parameters constant, this coefficient decreased by 4 μm−1 due to an increase of the concentration of TTIP from 1.7% to 8%. Simultaneously, the surface roughness increased as revealed by profilometry. Thus, since the chemical structure of films was found to change only marginally, a decrease of the film density is likely to cause the observed dependence of the absorption coefficient with increasing precursor concentration.