Effects of additives on properties of MgO thin films by electrostatic spray deposition

MgO thin films were deposited on SiO2/Si(100) and coming 7059 glass substra tes using bis(2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-3,5-heptanedionato) magnesium(II) as a pr ecursor dissolved in a solvent by electrostatic spray deposition (ESD). The ESD method is a cheap deposition method and is suitable for large area dep osition. When pure tetrahydrofuran (THF) was used as a solvent, a number of large particles appeared on the MgO thin film surface due to homogeneous n ucleation. However, by adding l-butyl alcohol or 1-octyl alcohol to THF, ho mogeneous nucleation was restricted and the number density of the large par ticles was also drastically reduced. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showe d that the MgO films deposited at a substrate temperature of 673 K had a (1 00)-preferred orientation regardless of the type of solvents used. Characte rization using Fourier Transformed-infrared (FT-IR) and spectroscopic photo meter revealed that the crystallized MgO thin films on the glass substrate had a high optical transmittance (> 85%) in the visible range. (C) 2000 Els evier Science B.V. All rights reserved.