Growth and characterization of molybdenum oxide thin films prepared by photochemical metal–organic deposition (PMOD)

Abstract Molybdenum oxide thin films have been successfully prepared by direct UV irradiation of amorphous films of a molybdenum dioxide acetylacetonate complex on Si(1 0 0) substrates. Photodeposited films were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the surface morphology examined by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). It was found that as-photodeposited films are uniform and smooth, with thickness of 350 nm, with rms surface roughness of 28 nm and contain non-stoichiometric oxides (MoO 3− x ). The results of XRD analysis showed that post-annealing of the films in air at 450 °C transforms the sub-oxides to α-MoO 3 phase with a much rougher surface morphology (rms = 144 nm). The as-photodeposited MoO 3− x films are amorphous, and exhibit better optical quality than annealed films.