Refractive Index and Dielectric Properties of TiO2/CuO Core –Shell Thin Films

Abstract

Core-shell metal oxide thin film of the form TiO₂/CuO was deposited on a glass substrate using the chemical bath technique. The deposited thin films were subjected to various annealing temperature in order to investigate the effect of thermal annealing on the properties of interest. The films were characterized to study the effect of thermal annealing on refractive index and the dielectric behaviour. Samples of the deposited film were annealed at temperature range of 373K to 673K in step of 100K in order to ascertain the influence of post deposition annealing temperature on the structure, the index of refraction and the dielectric constant. X-ray diffraction technique was used to ascertain the structure of the films, Rutherford backscattering was used to investigate the composition of the film while Scanning electron method was employed in studying the surface morphology of the film. The optical properties were investigated using spectrophotometer analysis. The results showed a reasonable trend between the annealing temperature and the film refractive index and dielectric constant.

Keywords: XRD,refractive index, SEM, dielectric constant, photon energy, core-shell