Title :
Ambient room temperature dense plasma focus deposition of nano phase TiO2 thin films on polymeric materials
Author :
Macharaga, G. ; Rawat, R.S. ; Lee, P. ; Tan, A. ; Springham, S.V.
Author_Institution :
Natural Sci. & Sci. Educ., NIE, Singapore, Singapore
Abstract :
Summary form only given. Successful deposition of nano-phase crystalline TiO2 thin films on polymeric substrates, polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and knitted polyethylene (PE) at room temperature was achieved using the dense plasma focus (DPF) device. Deposition was achieved using argon- oxygen gas mixture in the ratio of 9:1 after evacuating the chamber to a base pressure of 10-5 mbar. The working gas pressure and voltage were kept at 3 mbar and 10 kV respectively throughout the experiment .XRD and Raman spectroscopy confirm the presence of crystalline anatase and rutile on as deposited thin film samples. Films deposited using a different number of plasma focus shots or deposited at different distances from the anode exhibit different morphological properties. The films deposited on the polymer surfaces were more adherent when compared with films on glass slides and on silicon substrates in a scratch test. SEM micrographs confirm the presence of nano-sized grains at smaller number of deposition shots or higher distance of deposition. The tendency to agglomerate was found to increase either with the number of deposition shots or with a decrease in the anode-substrate deposition distance. The results have been explained on the basis of ion emission characteristics of the dense plasma focus device.
Keywords :
Raman spectra; X-ray diffraction; argon; nanostructured materials; oxygen; plasma focus; plasma materials processing; polymers; scanning electron microscopy; surface morphology; thin films; titanium compounds; vapour deposition; Ar-O2; Raman spectroscopy; SEM micrographs; TiO2; XRD; anode-substrate deposition distance; crystalline anatase; crystalline rutile; dense plasma focus device; knitted polyethylene substrate; nanophase crystalline titania thin film deposition; nanosized grains; polymeric substrate; polymethylmethacrylate substrate; pressure 0.00001 mbar; pressure 3 mbar; scratch test; temperature 293 K to 298 K; thin film morphological properties; voltage 10 kV; Crystallization; Nanoscale devices; Plasma density; Plasma devices; Plasma properties; Plasma temperature; Polymer films; Semiconductor films; Sputtering; Substrates;
Conference_Titel :
Plasma Science - Abstracts, 2009. ICOPS 2009. IEEE International Conference on
Conference_Location :
San Diego, CA
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-2617-1
DOI :
10.1109/PLASMA.2009.5227546