Nickel doped TiO2 films by a modified laser plasma source for photocatalytic applications

We reports a study on pure and Ni-doped TiO2 thin films produced via laser ablation technique. The novelty of the work consists that both synthesis and doping were carried out in a single process, using a modified laser ion source to simultaneously make pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and low-energy ion implantation (by post-acceleration method). In particular, two titania films were synthesized via PLD starting from a rutile target. One of the two films was doped with Ni ions, accelerated with a voltage of 20 kV. The total implanted dose, evaluated by a Faraday cup, resulted to be 1 x 10(14) ions/cm(2). The crystalline phase of the obtained TiO2 films was analysed by Raman spectroscopy. A higher photocatalytic activity, measured under UV irradiation using methylene blue, was estimated for the Ni-doped titania film with respect the pure one.