Influence of V+-implantation on structural, chemical, optical and nanomechanical properties of TiO2 films

TiO2 thin films were deposited by sol-gel method. V+ ions were implanted by using metal vapor vacuum arc implanter at 40 kV. The dose of implanted V+ ions was chosen as 6 × 1015, 1 × 1016, 3 × 1016 and 6 × 1016 ions/cm2. The investigations of structural, optical, nanomechanical and chemical characterizations of implanted thin films were carried out. The grain size of as deposited TiO2 film was about 23 nm, and the size was reduced after implantation. Implantation had no influence on the lattice parameters “a” and “c” of the films. Band gap of as deposited TiO2 film was estimated as 3.45 eV. The band gap of implanted films was found to decrease with increasing the dose of implanted ions. The refractive index of the implanted films increased with increasing the dose of implanted ions.