Photoluminescence study of trap-state defect on TiO2 thin films at different substrate temperature via RF magnetron sputtering

This paper highlights the defect levels using photoluminescence spectroscopy of TiO2 thin films. The TiO2 were deposited by Magnetron Sputtering system with 200, 300, 400, and 500 °C substrate temperature on microscope glass substrate. The PL result shows profound effect of various substrate temperatures to defect levels of oxygen vacancies and Ti3+ at titanium interstitial site. Increasing temperature would minimize the oxygen vacancy defect, however Ti3+ shows otherwise. Green region of PL consist of trapped hole for oxygen vacancy, while red region of PL is trapped electron associated to structural defect Ti3+. Green PL is dominant peak at temperature 200 °C, indicating that oxygen vacancy is the main defect at this temperature. However, PL peak shows slightly same value for others samples indicating that the temperature did not give high influence to other level of defect after 200 °C.