The Effect of Annealing Temperature on Statistical Properties of $WO_3$ Surface

TL;DR

This study investigates how annealing temperature influences the surface statistical properties of $WO_3$ thin films, revealing an optimal temperature around 400°C where surface features and microstructure undergo significant changes.

Contribution

It introduces a combined use of level crossing and structure function methods to analyze surface properties and identifies a phase transition at 400°C related to microstructural changes.

Findings

Maximum effective surface area at 400°C

Surface transitions from amorphous to crystalline structure

Phase transition indicated by changes in roughness parameters

Abstract

We have studied the effect of annealing temperature on the statistical properties of $WO_3$ surface using atomic force microscopy techniques (AFM). We have applied both level crossing and structure function methods. Level crossing analysis indicates an optimum annealing temperature of around 400$^oC$ at which the effective area of the $WO_3$ thin film is maximum, whereas composition of the surface remains stoichiometric. The complexity of the height fluctuation of surfaces was characterized by roughness, roughness exponent and lateral size of surface features. We have found that there is a phase transition at around 400$^oC$ from one set to two sets of roughness parameters. This happens due to microstructural changes from amorphous to crystalline structure in the samples that has been already found experimentally.