rf Magnetron Sputter Deposition of Transparent Conducting Nb-Doped TiO2 Films on SrTiO3

rf magnetron sputtering, an established and scalable large area deposition process, is used to deposit Nb:Ti O2 and Ta:Ti O2 films onto (100) SrTi O3 substrates at temperatures TS ranging from room temperature to 400 °C. Optical, electrical, and structural properties similar to those reported for pulsed laser deposition grown films were obtained. In particular, the most conducting Ti0.85 Nb0.15 O2 films, grown at TS ≈375 °C, are epitaxially oriented anatase films with conductivity of 3000 S cm-1, carrier concentration of 2.4× 1021 cm-3, Hall mobility of 7.6 cm2 V-1 s-1, and optical transparency T>80% from 400 to 900 nm. The conductivity is strongly correlated with the intensity of the anatase (004) x-ray diffraction peak.