Influence of oxygen plasma treatment on properties of ZrO2 films prepared by e-beam evaporation techniques

Zirconia films were prepared by e-beam evaporation, and oxygen plasma treatment was used to modify film properties. Spectrophotometry, x-ray diffractometry (XRD), and atomic force microscopy were used to characterize refractive index, extinction coefficient, rnicrostructure, and surface roughness, respectively. The experimental results indicate that both refractive index and extinction coefficient of the films were reduced slightly after oxygen plasma treatment, with the decrease of intrinsic stress and surface roughness. From XRD spectra, the intensity decrease of the T(110) diffraction peak was clearly observed after the treatment, which was caused by the restructuring of the film atoms. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

低损耗193nm反射膜的设计

采用1/4规整膜系,从电场强度、吸收损耗及散射损耗的分布几个方面,对影响193 nm反射膜性能的因素进行了分析。以分析结果为基础,对低损耗193 nm反射膜的设计进行了探讨。结果表明:在空气侧的外膜层中电场强度较大,随着层数向内过渡,电场强度迅速减小;高折射率材料膜层的吸收损耗明显高于低折射率材料膜层的吸收损耗,而且靠近空气侧最外层的高折射率膜层的吸收损耗最大;按由外层向内层过渡的方向,吸收损耗迅速减小,减小的速度与高低折射率材料折射率的比值相关;表面散射损耗与两种材料的折射率比值成正比,但折射率比值减小后只能通过增加膜层数来获得一定的反射率,而这样又会使表面粗糙度增加,并且引入其它的损耗。因此,选择折射率差值适当大一些的材料对降低散射损耗是有利的。设计了27层膜堆的193 nm反射膜,设计反射率在98%以上。

LiB3O5晶体上四倍频增透膜设计

采用矢量法设计了三硼酸锂（LiB3O5，LBO）晶体上1064nm、532nm、355nm和266nm四倍频增透膜．结果表明，在1064nm、532nm、355nm和266nm波长的剩余反射率分别为0．0019％、0．0031％、0．0061％和0．0047％．根据容差分析，薄膜制备时沉积速率准确度控制在＋6．5％时，基频、二倍频、三倍频和四倍频波长的剩余反射率分别增加至0．24％、0．92％、2．38％和4．37％．当薄膜材料折射率的变化控制在＋3％时，1064nm波长的剩余反射率增大为0．18％，532nm、355nm和266nm波长分别达0．61％，0．59％，0．20％．与薄膜物理厚度相比，膜层折射率对剩余反射率的影响大．对膜系敏感层的分析表明，在1064nm和266nm波长，从入射介质向基底过渡的第二层膜厚度变化对剩余反射率的影响最大，其次是第一膜层．在532nm和355nm波长，从入射介质向基底过渡的第一和第四膜层是该膜系的敏感层．误差分析也表明，薄膜材料的色散对特定波长的剩余反射率具有明显影响，即1064nm、532nm、355nm和266nm波长的剩余反射率分别增加至0．30％、0．23％、0．58％和3．13％．

Investigation on properties of TiO2 thin films deposited at different oxygen pressures

TiO2 thin films were prepared by electron beam evaporation at different oxygen partial pressures. The influences of oxygen partial pressure on optical, mechanical and structural properties of TiO2 thin films were studied. The results showed that with the increase of oxygen partial pressure, the optical transmittance gradually increased, the transmittance edge gradually shifted to short wavelength, and the corresponding refractive index decreased. The residual stresses of all samples were tensile, and the value increased as oxygen partial pressure increasing, which corresponded to the evolutions of the packing densities. The structures of TiO2 thin films all were amorphous because deposition particles did not possess enough energy to crystallize. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

SiO_2薄膜折射率的准确拟合分析

精确的光学常数对于设计和制备高品质的光学薄膜非常重要,尤其是那些光学性能对折射率变化敏感的薄膜。SiO_2是一种常用的低折射率材料,因与常用基底折射率相近使其准确拟合有一定难度。实验通过离子束溅射制备了SiO_2单层膜。考虑测量时的误差和基底折射率的影响,采用透射率包络和反射率包络得到了SiO_2的折射率,并用所得折射率进行反演来对这两种途径在实际测量拟合过程中的准确性进行比对。分析表明,剩余反射率在实际的测量过程中误差更小,直接用测量镀膜前后基片的剩余反射率值可以更简便更准确地得到SiO_2的折射率,能达到10~(-2)的精度。

Y2O3 stabilized ZrO2 thin films deposited by electron-beam evaporation: Optical properties, structure and residual stresses

This paper describes the preparation and the characterization Of Y2O3 stabilized ZrO2 thin films produced by electric-beam evaporation method. The optical properties, microstructure, surface morphology and the residual stress of the deposited films were investigated by optical spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning probe microscope and optical interferometer. It is shown that the optical transmission spectra of all the YSZ thin films are similar with those of ZrO2 thin film, possessing high transparency in the visible and near-infrared regions. The refractive index of the samples decreases with increasing of Y2O3 content. The crystalline structure of pure ZrO2 films is a mixture of tetragonal phase and monoclinic phase, however, Y2O3 stabilized ZrO2 thin films only exhibit the cubic phase independently of how much the added Y2O3 content is. The surface morphology spectrum indicates that all thin films present a crystalline columnar texture with columnar grains perpendicular to the substrate and with a predominantly open microporosity. The residual stress of films transforms tensile from compressive with the increasing Of Y2O3 molar content, which corresponds to the evolutions of the structure and packing densities. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Influence of different substrates on laser induced damage thresholds at 1064 nm of Ta2O5 films

Ta2O5 films are prepared on Si, BK7, fused silica, antireflection (AR) and high reflector (HR) substrates by electron beam evaporation method, respectively. Both the optical property and laser induced damage thresholds (LIDTs) at 1064 nm of Ta2O5 films on different substrates are investigated before and after annealing at 673 K for 12h. It is shown that annealing increases the refractive index and decreases the extinction index, and improves the O/Ta ratio of the Ta2O5 films from 2.42 to 2.50. Moreover, the results show that the LIDTs of the Ta2O5 films are mainly correlated with three parameters: substrate property, substoichiometry defect in the films and impurity defect at the interface between the substrate and the films. Details of the laser induced damage models in different cases are discussed.

Characterization of LaF3 coatings prepared at different temperatures and rates

LaF3 thin films were prepared by thermal boat evaporation at different substrate temperatures and various deposition rates. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Lambda 900 spectrophotometer and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were employed to study crystal structure, transmittance and chemical composition of the coatings, respectively. Laser-induce damage threshold (LIDT) was determined by a tripled Nd:YAG laser system with a pulse width of 8 ns. It is found that the crystal structure became more perfect and the refractive index increased gradually with the temperature rising. The LIDT was comparatively high at high temperature. In the other hand, the crystallization status also became better and the refractive index increased when the deposition rate enhanced at a low level. If the rate was super rapid, the crystallization worsened instead and the refractive index would lessen greatly. On the whole, the LIDT decreased with increasing rate. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of ZrO2 in HfO2 on reflectance of HfO2/SiO2 multilayer at 248 nm prepared by electron-beam evaporation

Influence of ZrO2 in HfO2 on the reflectance of HfO2/SiO2 multilayer at 248 nm was investigated. Two kinds of HfO2 with different ZrO2 content were chosen as high refractive index material and the same kind of SiO2 as low refractive index material to prepare the mirrors by electron-beam evaporation. The impurities in two kinds of HfO2 starting coating materials and in their corresponding single layer thin films were determined through glow discharge mass spectrum (GDMS) technology and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) equipment, respectively. It showed that between the two kinds of HfO2, either the bulk materials or their corresponding films, the difference of ZrO2 was much larger than that of the other impurities such as Ti and Fe. It is the Zr element that affects the property of thin films. Both in theoretical and in experimental, the mirror prepared with the HfO2 starting material containing more Zr content has a lower reflectance. Because the extinction coefficient of zirconia is relatively high in UV region, it can be treated as one kind of absorbing defects to influence the optical property of the mirrors. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Structure and optical properties of Nb2O5 sculptured thin films by glancing angle deposition

Nb2O5 sculptured thin. films deposited by electron beam evaporation with glancing angle deposition were prepared. Nb2O5 sculptured thin. films with tilted columns are optical anisotropy. XRD, SEM, UV-vis-NIR spectra are employed to characterize the microstructure and optical properties. The maximum of birefringence (Delta n) is up to 0.045 at alpha = 70 degrees with packing density of 0.487. With increasing the deposition angle, refractive index and packing density of Nb2O5 STF are decreasing. The relationship among deposition parameter, microstructure and optical properties was investigated in detail. (C) 2008 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.

Influence of substoichiometer on the laser-induced damage characters of HfO2 thin films

HfO2 is one of the most important high refractive index materials for depositing high power optical mirrors. In this research, HfO2 thin films were prepared by dual-ion beam reactive sputtering method, and the laser-induced damage thresholds (LIDT) of the sample were measured in 1-on-1 mode for laser with 1064 nm wavelength. The results indicate that the LIDT of the as-grown sample is only 3.96 J/cm(2), but it is increased to 8.98 J/cm(2) after annealing under temperature of 200 degrees C in atmosphere. By measuring the laser weak absorption and SIMS of the samples, we deduced that substoichiometer is the main reason for the low LIDT of the as-grown sample, and the experiment results were well explained with the theory of electronic-avalanche ionization. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effects of deposition rates on laser damage threshold of TiO2/SiO2 high reflectors

TiO2 single layers and TiO2/SiO2 high reflectors (HR) are prepared by electron beam evaporation at different TiO2 deposition rates. It is found that the changes of properties of TiO2 films with the increase of rate, such as the increase of refractive index and extinction coefficient and the decrease of physical thickness, lead to the spectrum shift and reflectivity bandwidth broadening of HR together with the increase of absorption and decrease of laser-induced damage threshold. The damages are found of different morphologies: a shallow pit to a seriously delaminated and deep crater, and the different amorphous-to-anatase-to-rutile phase transition processes detected by Raman study. The frequency shift of Raman vibration mode correlates with the strain in. film. Energy dispersive X-ray analysis reveals that impurities and non-stoichiometric defects are two absorption initiations resulting to the laser-induced transformation. (C) 2008 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.

Investigation on thermal stability of TiO2 films for application at high temperature

The thermal stability of electron beam deposited TiO2 monolayers and TiO2/SiO2 high reflectors (HR) during 300 to 1100 degrees C annealing is studied. It is found that the optical loss of film increases with the increase in annealing temperature, due to the phase change, crystallisation and deoxidising of film. Scattering loss dominates the optical property degradation of film below 900 degrees C, while the absorption is another factor at 1100 degrees C. The increase in refractive index and decrease in physical thickness of TiO2 layer shift the spectra of HR above 900 degrees C. The possible crack mechanism on the surface of HR during annealing is discussed. Guidance for application on high temperature stable optical coatings is given.

Optical properties of UO2 and PuO2

We perform first-principles calculations of electronic structure and optical properties for UO2 and PuO2 based on the density functional theory using the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) + U scheme. The main features in orbital-resolved partial density of states for occupied f and p orbitals, unoccupied d orbitals, and related gaps are well reproduced compared to experimental observations. Based on the satisfactory ground-state electronic structure calculations, the dynamical dielectric function and related optical spectra, i.e., the reflectivity, adsorption coefficient, energy-loss, and refractive index spectrum, are obtained. These results are consistent with the available experiments.