Effects of oxygen partial pressure on packing density and laser damage threshold of TiO2 thin films

TiO2 films are deposited by electron beam evaporation as a function of oxygen partial pressure. The packing density, refractive index, and extinction coefficient all decrease with the increase of pressure, which also induces the change of the film's microstructure, such as the increase of voids and H2O concentration in the film. The laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) of the film increases monotonically with the rise of pressure in this experiment. The porous structure and low nonstoichiometric defects absorption contribute to the film's high LIDT. The films prepared at the lowest and the highest pressure show nonstoichiometric and surface-defects-induced damage features, respectively.(C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.

Influences of oxygen partial pressure on structure and related properties of ZrO2 thin films prepared by electron beam evaporation deposition

ZrO2 thin films were prepared by electron beam evaporation at different oxygen partial pressures. The influences of oxygen partial pressure on structure and related properties of ZrO2 thin films were studied. Transmittance, thermal absorption, structure and residual stress of ZrO2 thin films were measured by spectrophotometer, surface thermal lensing technique (STL), X-ray diffraction and optical interferometer, respectively. The results showed that the structure and related properties varied progressively with the increase of oxygen partial pressure. The refractive indices and the packing densities of the thin films decreased when the oxygen partial pressure increased. The tetragonal phase fraction in the thin films decreased gradually as oxygen partial pressure increased. The residual stress of film deposited at base pressure was high compressive stress, the value decreased with the increase of oxygen partial pressure, and the residual stress became tensile with the further increase of oxygen pressure, which was corresponding to the evolution of packing densities and variation of interplanar distances. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Working pressure dependence of properties of Al2O3 thin films prepared by electron beam evaporation

The effects of working pressure on properties of Al2O3 thin films are investigated. Transmittance of the Al2O3 thin film is measured by a Lambda 900 spectrometer. Laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) is measured by a Nd:YAG laser at 355nm with a pulse width of 7ns. Microdefects were observed under a Nomarski microscope. The samples are characterized by optical properties and defect, as well as LIDT under the 355 nm Nd: YAG laser radiation. It is found that the working pressure has fundamental effect on the LIDT. It is the absorption rather than the microdefect that plays an important role on the LID T of Al2O3 thin film.

Optimizing the Curie temperature of pseudo-binary RxR2-x ' Fe-17 (R, R ' = rare earth) for magnetic refrigeration

Several pseudo-binary RxR2-x'Fe-17 alloys (with R = Y, Ce, Pr, Gd and Dy) were synthesized with rhombohedral Th2Zn17-type crystal structure determined from x-ray and neutron powder diffraction. The choice of compositions was done with the aim of tuning the Curie temperature (T-C) in the 270 +/- 20 K temperature range, in order to obtain the maximum magneto-caloric effect around room temperature. The investigated compounds exhibit broad isothermal magnetic entropy changes, Delta S-M(T), with moderate values of the refrigerant capacity, even though the values of Delta S-M(Peak) are relatively low compared with those of the R2Fe17 compounds with R = Pr or Nd. The reduction on the Delta S-M(Peak) is explained in terms of the diminution in the saturation magnetization value. Furthermore, the Delta S-M(T) curves exhibit a similar caret-like behavior, suggesting that the magneto-caloric effect is mainly governed by the Fe-sublattice. A single master curve for Delta S-M/Delta S-M(Peak)(T) under different values of the magnetic field change are obtained for each compound by rescaling of the temperature axis.