Influence of deposition temperature on the growth of vacuum evaporated V 2 O 5 thin films R.T. Rajendra Kumar a , B. Karunagaran a , S. Venkatachalam a , D. Mangalaraj a, * , Sa.K. Narayandass a , R. Kesavamoorthy b a Thin Film Laboratory, Department of Physics, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore 641 046, India b Materials Science Division, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam 603 102, India Received 11 December 2002; accepted 27 February 2003 Abstract V 2 O 5 films were deposited on silicon (111) substrates by vacuum evaporation technique at various deposition temperatures of 300, 473, 573, 623 and 673 K. X-ray characterization revealed that the films deposited at T s V 473 K are amorphous and the film deposited at T s z 573 K is polycrystalline. It is interesting to note that the film deposited at T s = 573 K is strongly oriented with (001) planes parallel to the substrate and the degree of preferred orientation towards (001) planes found to decrease with further increase in the deposition temperature. The influence of deposition temperature on the growth of the V 2 O 5 films has been studied by Raman scattering spectroscopy. The films deposited on the silicon substrates maintained at 573 K are found to have better structural quality. D 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: V 2 O 5 thin films; Raman scattering; X-ray diffraction; X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy; Vacuum evaporation 1. Introduction For the past 2 decades, vanadium pentoxide has attracted considerable interest due to their interesting physical properties [1–3]. Scientific and technolog- ical applications of vanadium oxide in thin films form include toxic gas detectors [4,5], electrochro- mic devices [6] and electronic and optical switches [7] as potential electroactive materials for high energy density secondary solid-state lithium batteries [8,9]. Vanadium pentoxide is an interesting cathode material because (i) it offers high specific energy density [10], (ii) it undergoes reversible topotactic reaction with lithium [11] and (iii) it has higher electrochemical activity with the highest stability. However, these applications depend on the techni- ques used to grow films and the performance linked with the crystallinity and morphology of the films [12].V 2 O 5 can be prepared by numerous deposition techniques [13–17]. Several reports are available on the Raman scattering measurements of vanadium pentoxide films prepared by various deposition techniques [18–21]. Growth of layered structured V 2 O 5 films by e-beam evaporation and pulsed laser 0167-577X/03/$ - see front matter D 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0167-577X(03)00185-X * Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-422-2422222x424; fax: +91- 422-2422387. E-mail address: dmraj800@yahoo.com (D. Mangalaraj). www.elsevier.com/locate/matlet Materials Letters 57 (2003) 3820 – 3825