LAUSR

Abstract Carbon can play a decisive role in the preparation of the titanium dioxide modification anatase. Amorphous titanium containing diamond-like carbon films are a suitable basis for this process. Those films can be deposited by a process that combines reactive magnetron sputtering with plasma source ion implantation, using a mixture of argon and ethylene (C2H4) for the plasma. After film deposition, annealing of the samples for 1 h at a fixed temperature between 723 K and 873 K in ambient atmosphere led to oxidation and crystallization. Colorless pure anatase was observed after annealing.