STRUCTURE OF ZRO2 OPTICAL THIN-FILMS PREPARED BY DUAL-ION BEAM REACTIVE SPUTTER-DEPOSITION

Zirconia thin films have been produced at room temperature and at 600 K using a dual ion beam reactive sputter deposition technique. A Zr ta rget was sputtered with 1.2 keV Ar+ ions and the growing films were co ntinuously bombarded with 100 eV O-2(+) ions. The chemical composition of the films was determined by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) and the microstructural state by transmission electron microsco py (TEM). Density and thickness were deduced from X-ray reflectometry experiments. The refractive index was measured by ellipsometry, A maxi mum refractive index of 2.16 was obtained for films deposited onto hea ted substrates.