Effect of thermal annealing on the surface of sol-gel prepared oxide film studied by atomic force microscopy and Raman spectroscopy

• Published in: Glass physics and chemistry Vol. 40; no. 1; pp. 99 - 105
• Main Authors: Ponomareva, A. A., Moshnikov, V. A., Maslova, O. A., Yuzyuk, Yu. I., Suchaneck, G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 2014; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Annealing; Atomic structure; Ceramics; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Composites; Fractal analysis; Fractals; Glass; Materials Science; Nanostructure; Natural Materials; Physical Chemistry; Raman spectroscopy; Silicon dioxide; Sol gel process; SnO; the sol-gel method; nanocomposite SiO
• ISSN: 1087-6596; 1608-313X
• DOI: 10.1134/S1087659614010192

In this work, we have investigated the surface topography evolution of sol-gel deposited SiO 2 -SnO 2 nanocomposite films annealed in the temperature range 200–600°C. The fractal dimension of atomic force microscopy images of the films was determined by the cube counting method and the triangulation method. The fractal dimension was shown to be an appropriate and easy to use tool for the characterization of nanosized thin film structures. Raman spectroscopy revealed the formation of a SiO 2 cage-like structure at 400°C and SnO 2 crystallization above 500°C.