Nanotribological behavior of thermal treatment of zinc titanate thin films

Abstract

We present a study of the nanotribological behavior of ZnTiO3 films; the surface morphology, stoichiometry, and friction (mu) were analyzed using atomic force microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and nanoscratch system. It is confirmed that the measured values of H and mu of the ZnTiO3 films were in the range from 8.5?+/-?0.4 to 5.6?+/-?0.4 GPa and from 0.164 to 0.226, respectively. It is suggested that the hexagonal ZnTiO3 decomposes into cubic Zn2TiO4 and rutile TiO2 based on the thermal treatment; the H, mu, and RMS were changed owing to the grain growth and recovery that results in a relax crystallinity of ZnTiO3 films. From X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measured, core levels of O 1 can attribute the weaker bonds as well as lower resistance after thermal treatment. The XRD patterns showed that as-deposited films are mainly amorphous; however, the hexagonal ZnTiO3 phase was observed with the ZnTiO3 (104), (110), (116), and (214) peaks from 620 to 820 degrees C, indicating that there is highly (104)-oriented ZnTiO3 on the silicon substrate. Copyright (c) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.