Effect of substrate bias voltage on the structure, electric and dielectric properties of TiO2 thin films by DC magnetron sputtering

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) films have been deposited on glass and p-silicon (1 0 0) substrates by DC magnetron sputtering technique to investigate their structural, electrical and optical properties. The surface composition of the TiO2 films has been analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The TiO2 films formed on unbiased substrates were amorphous. Application of negative bias voltage to the substrate transformed the amorphous TiO2 into polycrystalline as confirmed by Raman spectroscopic studies. Thin film capacitors with configuration of Al/TiO2/p-Si have been fabricated. The leakage current density of unbiased films was 1 × 10−6 A/cm2 at a gate bias voltage of 1.5 V and it was decreased to 1.41 × 10−7 A/cm2 with the increase of substrate bias voltage to −150 V owing to the increase in thickness of interfacial layer of SiO2. Dielectric properties and AC electrical conductivity of the films were studied at various frequencies for unbiased and biased at −150 V. The capacitance at 1 MHz for unbiased films was 2.42 × 10−10 F and it increased to 5.8 × 10−10 F in the films formed at substrate bias voltage of −150 V. Dielectric constant of TiO2 films were calculated from capacitance–voltage measurements at 1 MHz frequency. The dielectric constant of unbiased films was 6.2 while those formed at −150 V it increased to 19. The optical band gap of the films decreased from 3.50 to 3.42 eV with the increase of substrate bias voltage from 0 to −150 V.