Influence of oxygen fraction on the characteristics of titanium oxide coatings obtained by the magnetron method

Titanium oxide coatings were obtained by magnetron sputtering on a glass substrate with different oxygen fraction in the plasma. Studies were carried out by scanning electron microscopy of the obtained coating samples establishing the role of oxygen in the process of crystallization of TiO_x-coatings. It was found that with increasing the oxygen fraction in the vacuum arc discharge plasma the crystal grain size increases, the time of coating on the substrate increases, and the crystal layer has a columnar structure. The presence of amorphous and crystalline phase for all coating samples was revealed, with the predominance of the former. On the surface microphotographs of the coatings microcraters were found, on the surface of the samples obtained at the concentration of O₂ in the plasma 14% of their concentration is maximum, this can be explained by changes in the state of the plasma, starting to occur at this concentration of reaction gas. Vacuum photonic annealing of the obtained coatings was performed. Vacuum radiation annealing in the furnace led to modification of coatings: sintering of coatings, increase of their crystallinity. An increase in crystallite size in a sample with an oxygen fraction of 12% was detected.