The effect of thickness and optical constants of the dielectric layer on the color behaviour of the glass/Ti/TiO2 decorative coatings

Abstract This paper presents a study of the optical properties of interference non-transparent glass Ti/TiO2 systems obtained by pulsed magnetron sputtering. The samples are examined by means of spectroscopic ellipsometry and spectrophotometry combined with colorimetric measurements. Additionally, confocal optical microscopy is used. The thickness of titanium dioxide films varies from 21 nm to 33 nm and directly determines the sample’s color from gold to red, respectively. The analysis performed shows a strong influence of optical constants of the TiO2 on the samples’ color. For higher values of the refractive index in the visible spectral range similar colors have been obtained for substantially thinner titanium layers (compared to the samples with lower values of the refractive index of TiO2).