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Oblique angle deposited oxide thin films, in which refractive index profiles can be tailored across depth by tuning their microstructure using varying angle of deposition, have opened up new dimensions in fabrication of optical interference devices. Since surface morphology plays an important role for the qualification of these thin film devices for optical or other applications, it is important to investigate morphological properties of obliquely deposited thin films. In the present work, a set of HfO 2 thin films have been deposited at several oblique angles. Morphological parameters of such thin films viz., correlation length, intrinsic roughness, fractal spectral strength, etc., have been determined through suitable modelling of extended power spectral density measured by atomic force microscopy. It has been found that intrinsic roughness and fractal spectral strength show an interesting behaviour with deposition angle and the same has been discussed in the light of atomic shadowing and re-emission and diffusion of ad-atoms. Further refractive index and thickness of such thin films have been estimated from optical transmission spectra through suitable modelling. Refractive index of such thin film varies from 1.93 to 1.37 as the deposition angle varies from normal to glancing angle (80°). Further, refractive index and grain size depict an opposite trend with deposition angle. This variation has been explained in terms of varying film porosity and column slanting with angle of deposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A comparative morphology, grain structure and optical properties studies of reactive electron beam co-evaporated mixed thin films of hafnia–silica (HfO2:SiO2) and zirconia–silica (ZrO2:SiO2) systems have been carried out using atomic force microscopy and phase modulated ellipsometry. The addition of silica, especially with small fractions, has demonstrated altogether different types of evolutions in the microstructure and morphology in these binary thin film systems possibly forming new solid solution phases. Such morphological evolutions are probed through RMS roughness, power spectral density, height–height correlation and autocorrelation analyses of the topographic data acquired through atomic force microscopy. The present investigations indicated that with composition-control morphological quality improvement is more favourable in composite hafnia–silica over the zirconia–silica films. So for ultraviolet optical coating applications which demand low light scattering thin film microstructure, hafnia–silica binary composite system has a definite edge over the zirconia–silica counterpart. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• ZrO 2 Al 2 O 3 MgO thin films were deposited under varying oxygen pressure. • Indentation modulus of the films depicts a decreasing trend with oxygen pressure. • Density of the films shows an interesting trend with oxygen pressure. • Varying microstructure and different film components attributed the trends. Zirconia - Alumina – Magnesia (ZrO 2 Al 2 O 3 MgO) ternary composite thin films are used in the fabrication of interference multilayer thin film devices for lasers and photo-physical applications. Optical, structural and morphological properties of such thin films deposited under varying deposition parameters, are reported by researchers. Such thin films possess fascinating spectral stability and optical properties. However, reports on elastic properties that are crucial parameter to assess mechanical stability, are scanty for such thin films. In the present work, ZrO 2 Al 2 O 3 MgO thin films have been deposited by electron beam evaporation under varying oxygen (O 2) pressure. Atomic force acoustic microscopy, which is rather new technique, has been employed to estimate indentation modulus of the films. Indentation modulus exhibits a decreasing trend with deposition O 2 pressure. Film density measured by grazing incidence X-ray reflectivity, decreases monotonically with O 2 pressure. The variation of indentation modulus as well as density has been explained in terms of varying microstructure and mutual concentration of different components of ternary composite thin films. Correlation length, root mean square surface roughness and roughness exponents have been obtained through analysis of height-height correlation function measured by atomic force microscopy. Variation of correlation length corroborates the variation of indentation modulus and film density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Reactive evaporation technique has been used to deposit thin films of alumina (Al2O3) on crystalline Si substrates at ambient temperatures in an electron beam (e-beam) evaporation system using alumina granules as evaporant material. The loss of oxygen due to dissociation of alumina has been compensated by bleeding high purity oxygen gas into the system during evaporation. A set of samples were prepared at different flow rates of oxygen and the films have been characterized by Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (SE), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Grazing Incidence X-ray Reflectivity (GIXR) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) measurements. The density and optical properties of the films showed interesting variation with oxygen flow rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Composite optical thin-film materials have received a significant amount of interest in order to relieve the material constraints on refractive indices as well as reducing the number of layers required in optical coating design. Amongst others binary zirconia–silica composite thin films have attracted considerable attentions due to their several favorable opto-mechanical properties. In the present studies such a composite system under certain compositional mixings displayed both refractive index and band gap supremacy over pure zirconia films violating the most popular Moss rule. This unexpected evolution has several practical applications one of which can be directly employed in extending the range of tunability of the refractive index. Besides, the probing of such a novel evolution through the analysis of ellipsometric refractive index modeling and morphological correlation functions has revealed several novel as well as superior microstructural properties in the composite thin film systems. All these characterization and analysis techniques distinctly indicate a strong interrelation between the microstructural ordering and superior optical properties of the present zirconia–silica codeposited composites. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Depositing optical coatings at ambient substrate temperature has been stimulating interest as it has a range of potential applications. However, developing such optical coatings especially using refractory oxides is challenging since they yield stable thin films mostly at elevated substrate temperatures. Gadolinia films (Gd2O3), in the present experiment, however, observed to form stable films even at ambient substrate temperatures when deposited through reactive electron beam deposition. In addition, the films exhibited interesting optical properties such as reasonably high refractive index and wide band gap, which are rarely obtainable with conventional oxide materials. During the deposition, rate and oxygen pressure have been systematically varied. The deposited films have subsequently been characterized for optical and band gap related properties using spectrophotometric as well as ellipsometric spectral measurements. Atomic force microscopy has also been employed to study the surface topography and morphological changes under various deposition conditions. Both oxygen pressure and rate of evaporation have observed to greatly influence both the optical constant and surface topography of the gadolinia films. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Silica films under present reactive electron beam deposition conditions have depicted a novel self-organized surface grain structures when probed through atomic force microscopy, 2D fast Fourier transform and glancing incidence X-ray diffraction techniques. The formation of such ordered surface grain structures is observed to be strongly correlated to the nucleation and growth process of the silica films. However, the nature of the substrate (amorphous or crystalline) and multilayer geometries have influenced the shapes, sizes and abundances in the grain structures and the ordering. The strain mediation of such ordered structures when buried under polycrystalline layers like Gd2O3 have shown to influence both the grain size as well as roughness. A variety of grain structure evolutions and morphological changes in silica layers were noticed in different multilayer geometries. It is, hence, inferred that by appropriately using combinations of these materials, it is possible to have a control over the multilayer morphology and grain structures, which is a very relevant factor in developing precision ultraviolet laser coatings. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]