Microstructures and optical properties of β-V2O5 nanorods prepared by magnetron sputtering

Amorphous V2O5 films were prepared on glass substrates at room temperature by magnetron sputtering and converted to beta-V2O5 nanorods by subsequent annealing in O-2 flux. X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy and photoelectron spectroscopy with synchrotron radiation have been applied to confirm whether the nanorods are V2O5 compound, and to investigate their electronic structure. The optical properties of the V2O5 nanorods were also characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy. It was observed that the absorption edge had an obvious red shift. The growth mechanism of the nanorods and the relationship between the microstructure and the optical properties are briefly discussed.