Pulsed laser annealed rare earth doped TiO2 thin films for luminescence and sensing applications

Many research activities target functional luminescent materials based on metal oxides activated with trivalent rare earth ions. Specific applications necessitate optimization of material preparation, annealing and excitation-detection techniques. Hereby we utilized pulsed laser deposition to obtain thin (150 nm) TiO2 films containing 1 at% of samarium (Sm) or neodymium (Nd) impurity ions. The effect of pulsed laser annealing (ArF excimer laser, wavelength 193 nm, pulse duration 20 ns) on their structural and luminescent properties was investigated. It was found that, compared to conventional thermal annealing at 700 degrees C, proper laser annealing (fluence 50 mJ/cm2, 5-15 shots) induced much better crystallization (nearly phase-pure anatase) along with respective improvement of host-sensitized trivalent rare earth fluorescence. The outcome significantly depends on the applied fluence and number of laser shots. Effects of under-and overannealing were witnessed (poor or mixed phase crystallization, weak luminescence and melting/dewetting of the film). A strong luminescence from optimally annealed samples was detected under excitation of 365 nm light emitting diode, which is favorable for potential applications of such thin films. As an example, trace oxygen sensing is demonstrated with the laser annealed TiO2:Sm film.