Optical and Structural Properties of Titanium Dioxide Papered by DC Magneto-Sputtering as a NO2 Gas Sensor

Abstract

 In this work, a reactive DC magnetron sputtering technique was used to prepare TiO₂ thin films. The variation in argon and oxygen gases mixing ratios (4:1, 2:1, 1:1, 1:2, 1:4) was used to achieve optimal properties for gas sensing. In addition, an analysis of the optical XRD properties of TiO₂ thin films is presented. High-quality and uniform nanocrystalline films were obtained at a working gas pressure of 0.25 mbar and  1:4 (Ar/O₂) gas mixture. The optical properties showed a transparent thin film with uniform adherence to the substrate. The average transmission of the TiO₂ films deposited on the glass substrates was higher than 95% over the range of 400 to 800 nm.  The optical band gap varied from 3.84 eV to 3.93 eV as a function of oxygen/argon ratios. The XRD pattern showed that the films have an amorphous structure, which is shifted to polycrystalline with increasing oxygen to argon ratio. The sensitivity, response time, and recovery time were measured for TiO₂ thin films using NO₂ oxidizing gas.