Structural and optical properties of WO3 films deposited by pulsed laser deposition

Tungsten oxide (WO3) films were prepared on Si (1 0 0) and fused silica substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The effects of substrate temperature on the morphology, microstructure and optical properties of WO3 films were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectra and UV–visible spectrophotometer. It was found that the microstructure, morphology and optical properties strongly depend on the substrate temperature. The X-ray diffraction and Raman results indicate that the amorphous WO3 films are obtained at substrate temperatures below 200 °C whereas the films grown above 300 °C exhibit predominantly (0 0 2) plane orientation, representing the monoclinic structure. The surface roughness, film crystallinity and grain size of the films increase with increasing substrate temperature. The films prepared at substrate temperatures ranging from 300 to 600 °C exhibit high averaged transparency over 60% in the visible region. The optical band gaps of the films are found to decrease monotonically from 3.22 to 3.05 eV as the substrate temperature increases from 200 to 600 °C due to the crystallization of deposited WO3 film.