Structural and optical properties of nanocrystalline MoO <sub>3</sub> thin films grown by thermal oxidation of sputtered molybdenum films
Bita Ghasemi, Fatemeh Hajakbari, Alireza Hojabri
Abstract
Nanocrystalline MoO3 films were synthesized using thermal oxidation of molybdenum films deposited on quartz substrates by DC magnetron sputtering at different sputtering powers and times. The structural, morphological and optical properties of MoO3 films were studied by XRD, AFM, FESEM, RBS, and spectrophotometry. XRD patterns showed that, upon thermal oxidation the amorphous Mo films transformed to polycrystalline α-MoO3. The average crystallite size varied between 23 and 49 nm. AFM and FESEM images exhibited that the surface morphology of the films effectively influenced by sputtering parameters. The variation of transmittance and optical band gap with the deposition parameters were also discussed.