Crystallization of amorphous titanium oxide films upon annealing in an oxygen atmosphere

•Titanium oxide films were synthesized by magnetron sputtering and annealed at temperatures of 700, 800, and 900 °C in an oxygen atmosphere.•X-ray amorphous films time constants of crystallization were obtained upon the study of the morphology, optical and luminescent properties.•Activation energy of the crystallization process was determined on the order of 0.6 eV.•The developed kinetics model of nanocrystals growth shows the activation energy corresponds to the diffusion energy of oxygen vacancies. Titanium oxide films were synthesized by magnetron sputtering in this work and were annealed at temperatures of 700, 800, and 900 °C in an oxygen atmosphere. The morphological, optical and luminescent properties of the films before and after annealing were studied at different annealing times. The time constants for crystallization of X-ray amorphous films were calculated, and the activation energy of the crystallization process was determined in the order of 0.6 eV. The kinetics model of titanium oxide nanocrystals growth, which was developed in this work, showed that this activation energy corresponds to the diffusion energy of oxygen vacancies. This process is decisive for the growth of titanium oxide nanocrystals upon annealing in an oxygen atmosphere.