We have investigated the effects of Pt doping on the structural and electrochemical properties of amorphous ~a! V2O5 films grown by radio frequency magnetron sputtering. It is shown that the cycling performance of the a-V2O5 films is dependent upon the Pt content. Glancing angle x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy examination shows that the undoped film is amorphous with some short-range order. However, doping of the films at a rf power of 10 W leads to a complete a-V2O5 film which shows the best cycling behavior among the samples. It is shown that the short-range ordered structure reappears when the films are doped by cosputtering at rf powers of 30 and 50 W. It is further shown that doping at a rf power of 50 W results in the formation of amorphous and nanocrystalline PtO5 phases embedded in the a-V2O5 matrix.

2001 American Vacuum Society. [DOI: 10.1116/1.1392399]