| Summary: | In this investigation, TiO2 thin films were deposited on glass substrates at varying substrate temperatures from room temperature to 300 degrees C by radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering at an elevated sputtering pressure of 3 Pa. As-deposited TiO2 films were characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), field emission Auger electron microscopy (FEAES), and UV-visible-NIR spectrophotometry. The XRD results reveal that all the as-deposited films possessing the anatase structure and crystallinity of TiO2 films appears to deteriorate slightly at higher substrate temperatures. The crystallite size of the as-deposited films at different substrate temperatures is similar to 44 nm, which shows insignificant variation. AFM images exhibit a similar type of nodular morphology in the as-grown films. TiO2 films deposited at different substrate temperatures exhibit high visible transmittance and a high refractive index ranging from 2.31 to 2.37 at a wavelength of 550 nm. The optical band gap of the films has been estimated to be in the range from 3.39 to 3.42 eV.
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