Research on the influence of the filtrating electrode on the structure and optical properties of TiO₂ thin films prepared by the energy filtering magnetron sputtering technique

TiO₂ thin films were deposited by the energy filtrating magnetron sputtering (EFMS) technique and the traditional direct current magnetron sputtering (DMS) technique. The influence of the filtering electrode mesh number on the structure and optical properties of TiO₂ thin films was investigated. The structure, surface morphology and optical properties were characterized by XRD, SEM and ellipsometric spectroscopy, respectively. Results show that the TiO₂ thin films deposited by the DMS and EFMS techniques at the same deposition parameters are composed of the anatase phase exclusively. TiO₂ thin films deposited at lower deposition rate by the EFMS technique have lower crystallinity, smaller particle size and smoother surface. With increasing the mesh number, the refractive index, extinction coefficient and optical band gap are larger.