Silver nanoparticles have potential applications in fields of nanosicence and technology. In this work, polycrystalline silver (Ag) thin films were deposited on quartz substrates by DC magnetron sputtering method at the same deposition conditions and then, the Ag films were annealed in oxygen atmosphere for 65 min at different annealing temperatures namely 300, 400, 500 and 600°C. The crystal structure of the films was evaluated by X-ray diffraction. The atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy were employed for surface morphological studies of the films. Normal-incidence transmittance over the wavelength range of 200-2500 nm was measured using a spectrophotometer. The results show that the crystallization of the films increases after annealing and that the Ag films without annealing have lowest roughness. Annealing temperature effectively influences the surface morphology of the films. Optical studies reveal that the as-deposited Ag film has metallic behavior with zero transmittance and after annealing, the transmittance increases due to the formation of silver oxide phases in the films.
In the present investigation, nanocrystalline NiO thin films were prepared by thermal oxidation annealing of DC magnetron sputtered Ni thin films on quartz substrates. The effect of annealing temperature on the films structural, morphological and optical properties was investigated. The XRD analysis shows that all prepared films were of NiO with cubic structure and (200) orientation. The thickness of NiO films was in range of 40-100 nm. The average crystallite size is found to increase from 16 to 36 nm and the optical band gap energy decreases from 3.62 to 3.38 eV by increasing the annealing temperature from 400°C to 600°C. The AFM and SEM results show that the annealing temperature effectively influences the surface morphology of the films.
Titanium oxide (TiO₂) and nickel-doped TiO₂ thin films were deposited onto glass substrates by reactive DC magnetron sputtering technique at different oxygen contents. Then, prepared films were annealed at temperatures of 300 and 500°C. Influence of O₂/Ar ratio, nickel doping and annealing temperature on structural, morphological and optical properties of TiO₂ thin films were studied and discussed. The XRD analysis results have confirmed the amorphous nature of the films. The results show that increase of annealing temperature and oxygen content in argon-oxygen gas mixture have lead to an increase of films transparency. By doping the TiO₂ with nickel the optical band gap energy has slightly decreased. AFM analysis results have shown that the surface morphology of films is effectively influenced by annealing temperature.
In this study, molybdenum (Mo) thin films have been deposited on Si substrate by dc magnetron sputtering. Then for preparation of MoO_3 thin films the thermal oxidation of Mo thin films under the oxygen flow was employed in the electrical furnace. The influence of the different thermal oxidation temperatures at 400, 600, 800 and 1000C on the structural and morphological properties of MoO_3 thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy, respectively. The results show that the crystallinity and surface morphology of the films are strongly dependent on the thermal oxidation temperatures.
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