Hot-wire chemical vapor deposition of WO3−x thin films of various oxygen contents

•Synthesis of tungsten oxide thin films of controllable oxygen content.•Partial reduction of WO3−x thin films during deposition.•Deposition of layered films with configurations of W, W/WO3−x, WO3/W/WO3−x.•Synthesis of WO3−x films with atomic oxygen-to-tungsten ratios between 0.3 and 3.

We present the synthesis of tungsten oxide (WO3−x) thin films consisting of layers of varying oxygen content. Configurations of layered thin films comprised of W, W/WO3−x, WO3/W and WO3/W/WO3−x are obtained in a single continuous hot-wire chemical vapor deposition process using only ambient air and hydrogen. The air oxidizes resistively heated tungsten filaments and produces the tungsten oxide species, which deposit on a substrate and are subsequently reduced by the hydrogen. The reduction of tungsten oxides to oxides of lower oxygen content (suboxides) depends on the local water vapor pressure and temperature. In this work, the substrate temperature is either below 250 °C or is kept at 750 °C. A number of films are synthesized using a combined air/hydrogen flow at various total process pressures. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry is employed to measure the number of tungsten and oxygen atoms deposited, revealing the average atomic compositions and the oxygen profiles of the films. High-resolution scanning electron microscopy is performed to measure the physical thicknesses and display the internal morphologies of the films. The chemical structure and crystallinity are investigated with Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction, respectively.