High Temperature Anatase TiO2 Stabilization in TiO2/Si Multilayer Structures

What is it about?

In this work TiO2/Si multilayer structures have been grown by sputtering. After rapid thermal annealing in pure inert gas or inert gas with oxygen atmosphere the multilayers have been investigated by high resolution transmission electron microscopy, μ-Raman and dynamic secondary ion mass spectrometry for their structure and anatase/rutile phase composition. It has been found that the photocatalytically more active anatase TiO2 is stabilized and that interdiffusion and chemical reaction processes were strongly hindered up to 1100°C annealing temperature in oxygen containing atmosphere. These findings are of particular importance since only at this high temperature simultaneous formation of embedded Si nanocrystallites can be achieved.

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