Study on structural, optical and wettable properties of CeO2 thin films deposited by reactive DC magnetron sputtering

CeO2 thin films have been deposited on different substrates (Si & quartz) by reactive DC magnetron sputtering technique and effect of target-substrate distance (dT-S) on structural, optical, and wettable properties has been investigated. XRD data reveals that CeO2 films are polycrystalline in nature with cubic structure. Variation in growth rates of different orientations with change in dT-S has been observed. Evolution of (200) peak for the film deposited on Si substrate confirms the substrate dependence of the texture. Surface morphology of the films has been characterized by AFM. Wettability and optical properties have been studied using contact angle goniometer and UV-Vis spectrophotometer, respectively. CeO2 films deposited at 5 cm dT-S have least transmittacnce but highest hydrophobicity among all the studied samples.