Structural and electrical characterization of the titanium-based films deposited on the amorphous glass surface

At normal pressure and room temperature conditions, amorphous glasses are electrical insulators, but they show important electrical behavior when are coated with electrical conductor films. In this work, we study the microstructural and electrical properties of TiOx, TiN, and TiON films deposited on amorphous glass substrates under controlled argon and oxygen flow and heat treatment. The films were produced at room temperature by magnetron sputtering in a 1 × 10^–6 Torr vacuum. The TiOx films were deposited with 120 watts, 0.3 sccm of oxygen flow, and 20, 30, 40, and 50 sccm of argon flows. For the TiON films, the argon and nitrogen flows were constant at 20 sccm and 5 sccm, respectively, while the oxygen flow varied as 0, 2, 3, and 5 sccm (the TiN films correspond to the case of 0 sccm). The TiOx and TiON films were also deposited at temperatures of 25, 50, 75, and 100 °C using the deposition conditions of the films that presented the highest voltage intensity and electrical conductivity. All deposits were made within a 2-h period, and the electrical measurements were made immediately after deposition. The Kelvin method, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning (SEM) and transmission (TEM) electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were used for characterization. The films were polycrystalline with 600 nm in thickness and with nanometer-sized particles. Electrical conductivity was directly influenced by variation of argon and oxygen flows, and an increase in the electrical conductivity with increasing the substrate temperature during deposition was observed.