Preparation of Co:TiO₂ thin films by crossed-beam pulsed laser deposition

Abstract

Co:TiO₂ thin films were deposited using two interacting plasmas produced from different targets, TiO₂ and cobalt. By keeping constant the laser ablation conditions on the TiO₂ target and changing them on the Co target, it was possible to vary in a controlled way the Co content in the films. The cobalt plasma parameters, such as the ion kinetic energy and plasma density, were determined for each deposition condition in an attempt to correlate them with the material’s properties. The cobalt ion mean kinetic energy was varied from 36 to 789 eV, resulting in films with Co content from 1.2 up to 5.1 at.%, respectively, revealing that the cobalt content can be controlled by the Co⁺ kinetic energy. The study of the optical properties showed that the optical band gap decreased from 2.9 to 2.0 eV as the Co content increased. Raman spectroscopy was used to characterize the microstructure of the deposits, and the obtained results suggest the formation of two coexisting phases: TiO₂ in its rutile phase and CoTiO₃. It was found that as the Co⁺ energy increases, the CoTiO₃ phase develops in a greater quantity. XPS measurements confirm the Raman spectroscopy results.