Effect of sputtering pressure on molybdenum oxide thin films prepared by RF magnetron sputtering

The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of sputtering pressure variation on Molybdenum oxide thin films were deposited by RF reactive magnetron sputtering. The effect of sputtering pressure on structural and wettability properties of molybdenum oxide films was studied. The decrease of sputtering pressure from 4.5Pa to 1.5Pa which led to evolution of (540), (001) and (015) textures of molybdenum oxide. The XRD results show increment of preferred orientation along with (001) plane for deposited molybdenum oxide films. The average crystallite size is within range 10.09nm-27.39nm with decrease of sputtering pressure from 4.5Pa to 1.5Pa. The static contact angle formed by water and surface energy varies as a function of sputtering pressure. The surface roughness increases from 16.886 to 30.16 nm with decrease in sputtering pressure from 4.5Pa to 1.5Pa.