Electrical and Gas Sensing Properties of Cr2O3-TiO2 Thin Films made by Pulsed Laser Deposition

Pulsed laser deposition was applied to chromia-titania solid solutions (CTO) with the aim to study electrical and gas sensing properties on (ultra)thin films of this material. The films with different compositions (5% to 33.3% of Ti from total cationic amount) were characterized by XRD, XRR, AFM, and EPMA. The electrical conductivity of the films was studied in clean air and in the presence of reducing gases (H
₂
, CO). The gas sensitivity was found to depend strongly on growth and annealing conditions but only slightly from thickness (10-70 nm) or composition of the films prepared under similar conditions.