Effect of oxygen partial pressure on microstructural and optical properties of titanium oxide thin films prepared by pulsed laser deposition

•Microstructural and optical properties are studied systematically.•The optical properties are studied by UV–visible and photoluminescence.•The PL spectra shows two peaks correspond to bandgap of anatase and rutile.•The maximum refractive index of 2.73 is obtained for rutile phase of titania. Nanocrystalline titanium oxide (TiO2) thin films were deposited on silicon (100) and quartz substrates at various oxygen partial pressures (1×10−5 to 3.5×10−1mbar) with a substrate temperature of 973K by pulsed laser deposition. The microstructural and optical properties were characterized using Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, UV–visible spectroscopy and photoluminescence. The X-ray diffraction studies indicated the formation of mixed phases (anatase and rutile) at higher oxygen partial pressures (3.5×10−2 to 3.5×10−1mbar) and strong rutile phase at lower oxygen partial pressures (1×10−5 to 3.5×10−3mbar). The atomic force microscopy studies showed the dense and uniform distribution of nanocrystallites. The root mean square surface roughness of the films increased with increasing oxygen partial pressures. The UV–visible studies showed that the bandgap of the films increased from 3.20eV to 3.60eV with the increase of oxygen partial pressures. The refractive index was found to decrease from 2.73 to 2.06 (at 550nm) as the oxygen partial pressure increased from 1.5×10−4mbar to 3.5×10−1mbar. The photoluminescence peaks were fitted to Gaussian function and the bandgap was found to be in the range ∼3.28–3.40eV for anatase and 2.98–3.13eV for rutile phases with increasing oxygen partial pressure from 1×10−5 to 3.5×10−1mbar.