Optical and Electromagnetic Properties of doped Titanium Oxide Films

Titanium oxide has been extensively studied because of its usefulness in a wide variety of applications, including photo-catalysis, pigments and sensors. In this book, TCO thin films of TiO2:Nb and TiO2:Co were made by the spray pyrolysis technique. The films were deposited on Corning 7059, silicon and glass substrates at temperature 500¿C and 475¿C respectively using an alcoholic precursor solution consisting of titanium (iv) Isopropoxide with NbCl5 or Co(NO3)2. All as prepared films were amorphous, which were highly crystallized to be anatase TiO2 after air or hydrogen annealing. The TiO2:Nb films were then studied with regard to opto-electronic applications while TiO2:Co films were explored for magneto-optic applications. The influence of increasing Nb or Co dopant concentration on the electrical, optical, structural and (magneto-optical for CoxTi1-xO2) properties was investigated. The minimum resistivity, 3.36 ¿ cm, for Ti1-xNb2O2 film (x = 0.15) was obtained after 1 hour post deposition annealing in hydrogen atmosphere. Dispersion analysis using a model for dielectric susceptibility of the film consisting of two parts: Drude and Kim terms was used to simulate data.