Preparation of TiO2 thin films by reactive evaporation method

Thin films of TiO
₂
were prepared on glass substrates by reactive evaporation of TiO. Properties of the thin films were investigated under ultrahigh vacuum conditions by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). AFM topography exhibits a uniformity structure of the thin films and shows a high quality nanocrystalline structure of TiO
₂
with grain size ranging from 28 nm to 35nm. The XPS Ti-2p spectra confirmed the occurrence of the 4
⁺
oxidation state of Ti and the O-1s spectra revealed the presence of an O
^-2
photoelectron peak. The calculated O/Ti ratio in TiO
₂
thin films was in the range 1.85-2.15 depending on the samples. Additional analysis of the thin films was carried out by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD).