Investigation of structural, optical and electrical properties of (Ti,Nb)Ox thin films deposited by high energy reactive magnetron sputtering

In this work the results of investigations of the titanium-niobium oxides thin films have been reported. The thin films were manufactured with the aid of a modified reactive magnetron sputtering process. The aim of the research was the analysis of structural, optical and electrical properties of the deposited thin films. Additionally, the influence of post-process annealing on the properties of studied coatings has been presented. The as-deposited coatings were amorphous, while annealing at 873 K caused a structural change to the mixture of TiO2 anatase-rutile phases. The prepared thin films exhibited good transparency with transmission level of ca. 50 % and low resistivity varying from 2 Ωcm to 5×10−2 Ωcm, depending on the time and temperature of annealing. What is worth to emphasize, the sign of Seebeck coefficient changed after the annealing process from the electron to hole type electrical conduction.