Synthesis and properties of silicon dioxide films prepared by pulsed laser deposition using ceramic SiO2 target

Abstract: Silicon dioxide (SiO2) thin films were deposited on BK7 substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method using ceramic SiO2 targets (C-SiO2-Ts), which was sintered by solid state sintering. The reason for using C-SiO2-T instead of the silicon target is to reduce the oxygen-deficiency phenomenon in deposited SiO2 thin films. The influence of substrate-temperatures, oxygen-pressures and oxygen-plasma-assistance on the properties of synthesized films was studied. X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, ultraviolet–visible–near-infrared scanning spectrophotometry were used to characterize the crystallinity, morphology and optical properties of deposited films. Results show that the root-mean-square roughness of films increased with the increase of oxygen-pressure, substrate-temperature and with the employment of oxygen-plasma. The transmittance of films increased with the increase of oxygen-pressure and decreased with the increase of substrate-temperature and with the employment of oxygen-plasma. Stoichiometric SiO2 thin film with high optical quality was synthesized at room-temperature and 20Pa oxygen-pressure using C-SiO2-T. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]