Pulsed bias effect on roughness of TiO2:Nb films deposited by grid assisted magnetron sputtering

In this work Nb-doped TiO 2 (TiO 2 :Nb) films were deposited by reactive sputtering. The substrate was biased with negative pulses to change the energy of the ions nearby the sample surface during the deposition. As consequence, the film crystalline structure and roughness were changed. It was verified that higher energy favours the rutile growth with a higher roughness, even under low temperature as 300°C, and the material structure can be controlled by setting the duty cycle, voltage and frequency of the switched power supply applied to the substrate.