Structural investigations of TiO2:Tb thin films by X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy

In this work, structural investigations of TiO2 thin films doped with Tb at the amount of 0.4, 2 and 2.6 at.% have been outlined. Thin films were deposited on Si and SiO2 substrates by high energy reactive magnetron sputtering from mosaic Ti-Tb target. The influence of Tb dopant amount, post-annealing treatment and kind of applied substrate on microstructure has been discussed. Thin films were investigated by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). XRD analysis revealed the existence of crystalline TiO2 in anatase and rutile forms, depending on Tb amount in examined samples. AFM images show that as-deposited samples with 0.4 at.% concentration of terbium (anatase structure) have bigger crystallites as compared to 2% and 2.6 at.% of Tb (rutile structure). The additional annealing at 1070 K results in a mixed anatase (77%) and rutile (23%) structure.