Study of nitrogen ion doping of titanium dioxide films

TL;DR

This paper investigates nitrogen ion doping of titanium dioxide thin films to enhance their properties as transparent conducting oxides, demonstrating effective doping control and promising electrical and optical characteristics for TCO applications.

Contribution

It introduces a low-energy nitrogen ion implantation method for doping TiO2 films, enabling high doping levels without compromising film structure.

Findings

Achieved up to 30 at% nitrogen concentration at the surface.

Obtained resistivity of about 0.3 Ω·cm with 85% light transmission.

Carrier density exceeded 10^19 cm^-3 with mobility between 0.1 and 1 cm^2V^-1s^-1.

Abstract

This study reports on the properties of nitrogen doped titanium dioxide $TiO_2$ thin films considering the application as transparent conducting oxide (TCO). Sets of thin films were prepared by sputtering a titanium target under oxygen atmosphere on a quartz substrate at 400 or 500{\deg}C. Films were then doped at the same temperature by 150 eV nitrogen ions. The films were prepared in Anatase phase which was maintained after doping. Up to 30at% nitrogen concentration was obtained at the surface, as determined by in situ x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Such high nitrogen concentration at the surface lead to nitrogen diffusion into the bulk which reached about 25 nm. Hall measurements indicate that average carrier density reached over $10^{19} cm^{-3}$ with mobility in the range of $0.1$ to $1 cm^2V^{-1}s^{-1}$. Resistivity about $3.10^{-1} \Omega cm$ could be obtained with 85% light transmission at 550 nm. These results indicate that low energy implantation is an effective technique for $TiO_2$ doping that allows an accurate control of the doping process independently from the TiO2 preparation. Moreover, this doping route seems promising to attain high doping levels without significantly affecting the film structure. Such approach could be relevant for preparation of $N:TiO_2$ transparent conduction electrodes (TCE).