Gas sensitivity of IBSD deposited TiO2 thin films

TiO2 films of 130 nm and 463 nm in thickness were deposited by ion beam sputter deposition (IBSD), followed by annealing at temperatures of 800 °C and 1000 °C. The effect of H2, CO, CO2, NO2, NO, CH4 and O2 on the electrically conductive properties of annealed TiO2 thin films in the operating temperature range of 200–750 °C were studied. The prospects of IBSD deposited TiO2 thin films in the development of high operating temperature and high stability O2 sensors were investigated. TiO2 films with a thickness of 130 nm and annealed at 800 °C demonstrated the highest response to O2, of 7.5 arb.un. when exposed to 40 vol. %. An increase in the annealing temperature of up to 1000 °C at the same film thickness made it possible to reduce the response and recovery by 2 times, due to changes in the microstructure of the film surface. The films demonstrated high sensitivity to H2 and nitrogen oxides at an operating temperature of 600 °C. The possibility of controlling the responses to different gases by varying the conditions of their annealing and thicknesses was shown. A feasible mechanism for the sensory effect in the IBSD TiO2 thin films was proposed and discussed.