Paper AS-TuP8
Structural Characterization of Ag Nanoparticles Embedded in TiO₂ Thin Films Prepared by Means of RF-Magnetron Sputtering

Tuesday, October 21, 2008, 6:30 pm, Room Hall D

The combination of nanometer-sized metal particles and semiconductor matrix materials displays size and matrix dependend properties. These nanocomposite materials have been attracting much attention in recent years because of their unique catalytic behaviour, nonlinear optical properties or selective optical absorption and reflection. Usually, the synthesis route strongly influences the properties of the embedded nanoparticles, especially in terms of the size, structure, crystal morphology, degree of crystallinity and the nature of the sample surface, which are important for the functional properties of thin nanocomposite films. Silver nanoparticles embedded in TiO2-films have a high potential for applications in the fields of solar energy conversion, photocatalysis, chemical and biological sensing or antibacterial coatings. RF-sputtering method is one of the most feasible methods due to its inherent versatility and the capability of obtaining a homogeneous surface coverage at low temperatures under controlled processing conditions. In the present study, TiO2 films with embedded Ag nanoparticles were prepared by means of RF-magnetron sputter deposition and subsequent annealing. We applied grazing incidence X-ray absorption spectroscopy amongst other analytical methods including AFM or SKPFM to investigate the effects of deposition on the size and structure, crystal morphology and the degree of crystallinity of the embedded Ag nanoparticles as well as the TiO2 matrix material. The influence of the deposition parameters on the structure of the nanocomposite films and on its optical properties and applications like reversible photochromic transformations or antibacterial coatings are presented.