Structure, composition and optical band gap of TiO$_{2}$ films prepared by d.c. magnetron sputtering*

Titanium dioxide (TiO$_{2})$ thin films have been grown on silicon (001) substrate by d.c. magnetron sputtering. in an gas mixture at different Ar/O$_{2}$ ratio flow and at two different substrate temperatures (400 and 550 $^{\circ}$C). Samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, XRD, Raman spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and UV-Vis analysis. Results showed that we obtained TiO$_{2}$-Anatase phase for the 90/10 of Ar/O$_{2}$ ratio in the gas mixture and at substrate temperature of 400 $^{\circ}$C. The anatase phase proportion in the films decreases by increasing the oxygen concentration in the Ar/O$_{2}$ gas mixture. Optical band gap of 2.9 and 2.7 eV was calculated from UV-Vis spectra for sample grown at 90/10 and 80/20 of Ar/O$_{2}$ ratio, respectively.