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The ZrO2 thin films were deposited on BK7 glass substrates by electron beam evaporation method at room temperature. The influences of post-deposition annealing between 200°C and 400°C on the structural and mechanical properties of the films have been investigated by X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy. It was found that a monoclinic phase formed at lower temperature of 200°C. With the increase of the annealing temperature, the tetragonal phase appeared. The stress in ZrO2 films showed a transition from tensile to compressive which could be explained as the evolution of the microstructure as function of annealing temperatures. At the same time, the refractive index of the ZrO2 films increased with the increasing of annealing temperatures, which may be ascribed to the microstructure densification of the ZrO2 films.© (2004) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

In (2+1) dimension, growth process of thin film on non-planar substrate in Kuramoto-Sivashinsky (K-S) model is studied with the numerical simulation approach. 15×15 semi-ellipsoids arranged orderly on the surface of substrate are used to represent initial rough surface of substrate. The results show that at the initial stage of growth process, the interface width constantly decreases with the growth time, then it reaches minimum. However, with the increase of growth time, the granules of different sizes distributes evenly on the surface of thin film. Whereafter the size of granules and the interface width gradually increase with the growth time, and the surface of thin film presents fractal properties.© (2004) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Adhesion between the interface of pure silver thin film and three kinds of low refractive index coatings MgF2, Al2O3, SiO2 were compared in this article. The results indicated that the adhesion of Al2O3 and Ag was evidently superior to that of MgF2 and Ag, and the adhesion of MgF2 and Ag was evidently superior to that Of SiO2 and Ag. Reasons were analyzed accordingly. On the other hand, we compared the effect on the optical characteristic of Ag film when these three kinds of films were used as protective coatings and enhanced coatings. Considering the difference of the adhesion between Ag and MgF2, Al2O3, SiO2, suited uses are given for each other. C 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A characteristic criterion of the growth of metallic films from discontinuous to continuous has been proposed. That is, when the electric conductivity of thin metallic film equals to 63.2% of the electric conductivity of the infinitely thick metallic film, the growth of metallic films come into continuous film. The corresponding equivalent thickness G of the characteristic criterion can be thought of as the characteristic thickness of the growth of metal films from discontinuous to continuous. According this characteristic criterion, the characteristic thicknesses of Co films and Cu films have been given. The topography images of Co and Cu films have been observed using atomic force microscopy. Keywords: metallic films, a characteristic criterion, discontinuous film, continuous film, ion beam sputtering 1. INTRODUCTION The growth of a solid film on a substrate generally takes place in one of the three modes, which are, firstly, the island or Volmer–Weber growth mode. Secondly, the layer, or Frank–van der Merwe growth mode. Thirdly, an intermediate layer plus an island or Stranski–Krastanov growth mode. It has been shown that most metal films grow from initially isolated metallic islands to a connecting network and finally to complete coverage of the whole area