Structural, morphological and local electric properties of TiO<inf>2</inf> thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin films were synthesized on (1 0 0) Si substrates by reactive pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. A frequency quadrupled Nd : YAG (λ ≤ 266 nm, τFWHM ≅ 5 ns, ν ≤ 10 Hz) laser source was used for the irradiations of metallic Ti targets. The experiments were performed in controlled oxygen atmosphere. Crystallinity, surface morphology and local electric properties of the obtained oxide thin films were investigated by x-ray diffractometry, micro-Raman spectroscopy and current sensing atomic force microscopy. An inter-relation was found between the surface morphology, the crystalline structure and the nano-scale electric properties which open the possibility of synthesizing by the PLD technique TiO2 thin films with tunable functional properties for future applications such as photocatalysts, gas sensors or solar energy converters. © 2007 IOP Publishing Ltd.