Optical, dielectric and morphological studies of sol–gel derived nanocrystalline TiO2 films

Nanocrystalline TiO2 films have been synthesized on glass and silicon substrates by sol–gel technique. The films have been characterized with optical reflectance/transmittance in the wavelength range 300–1000 nm and the optical constants (n, k) were estimated by using envelope technique as well as spectroscopic ellipsometry. Morphological studies have been carried out using atomic force microscope (AFM). Metal-Oxide-Silicon (MOS) capacitor was fabricated using conducting coating on TiO2 film deposited on silicon. The C–V measurements show that the film annealed at 300 °C has a dielectric constant of 19.80. The high percentage of transmittance, low surface roughness and high dielectric constant suggests that it can be used as an efficient anti-reflection coating on silicon and other optical coating applications and also as a MOS capacitor.