TiO2 thin films by Chemical Vapor Deposition: an XPS characterization

As a part of a comprehensive research work on ZnO-TiO2 nanosystems synthesized by Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD), we initially devoted our attention to the preparation and characterization of nanocrystalline TiO2 thin films. Specifically, the coatings were obtained by CVD on Si(100) substrates starting from Ti(OiPr)2(dpm)2 (OiPr=iso-propoxy; dpm=2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-3, 5-heptanedionate), under a dry O2 atmosphere. The obtained samples were characterized by complementary techniques, namely Glancing Incidence X-ray Diffraction (GIXRD), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), for a thorough investigation of their microstructure, chemical composition and morphology. The present contribution is devoted to the XPS analysis of a TiO2 thin film obtained at 450 °C. Besides the wide scan spectrum, detailed spectra for the Ti 2p, O ls and C 1s regions and related data are presented and discussed.