Annealing induced changes in the structure, optical and electrical properties of GeTiO2 nanostructured films

Abstract The GeTiO2 amorphous films were deposited by magnetron sputtering and subsequently annealed at 400, 550, 600 and 700 °C for nanostructuring. The structure of annealed films was investigated by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The transmittance spectra of all annealed GeTiO2 films were measured and simulated by using Bruggeman effective medium approximation considering components of TiO2 anatase, crystalline Ge, GeO2 and voids determined from the structure investigations. The electrical behavior of 400, 600 and 700 °C annealed films was studied by measuring current–voltage characteristics. We found that by increasing the annealing temperature the films thickness decreases from 330 nm (as-deposited films) to 290 nm (700 °C annealed films). The 400 °C annealed films are amorphous, while all the others annealed at higher temperatures are crystallized (X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy). In the 550 and 600 °C annealed films we found the (TiGe)O2 rutile structure which is formed by starting from the GeO2 tetragonal structure with high Ti content. Additionally, these films contain TiO2 anatase structure and cubic Ge nanocrystals. At 700 °C annealing temperature, a surface layer of GeO2 tetragonal nanocrystals is formed by Ge diffusion and a part of Ge is lost. The experimental transmittance spectra indicate a broadening of the transparency range by increasing the annealing temperature, and the simulated ones also indicate this behavior with the decrease of Ge content, the experimental and simulated spectra being in good agreement. Also, the increase of annealing temperature produces an increase of electrical conductivity.