Effect of platinum co-sputtering on characteristics of amorphous vanadium oxide films

The effect of platinum co-sputtering on the characteristics of amorphous V2O5 films, grown by dc reactive sputtering, is investigated. The co-sputtering process influences the growth mechanism as well as the characteristics of the V2O5 films. Glancing-angle X-ray diffraction (GXRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) results indicate that the microstructure of the V2O5 films is affected by the rf power of the co-sputtered platinum. In addition, it is found that the platinum co-sputtered V2O5 cathode film exhibits better cycleability than an undoped V2O5 cathode film. This is due to the absence of short-range order, which is generally present in undoped V2O5 cathode films. Possible explanations are given to describe the dependence of the cycleability V2O5 films on the platinum rf power and the growth mechanism of the V2O5 film.