Effect of substrate temperature and oxygen partial pressure on microstructure and optical properties of pulsed laser deposited yttrium oxide thin films

• Published in: Applied surface science 2011-06, Vol.257 (17), p.7665-7670
• Main Authors: Mishra, Maneesha, Kuppusami, P., Sairam, T.N., Singh, Akash, Mohandas, E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Crystallites; Deposition; Energy gap; Exact sciences and technology; Laser deposition; Materials science; Methods of deposition of films and coatings; film growth and epitaxy; Microstructure; Optical constants (including refractive index, complex dielectric constant, absorption, reflection and transmission coefficients, emissivity); Optical constants: refractive index, complex dielectric constant, absorption, reflection and transmission coefficients, emissivity; Optical properties; Optical properties and condensed-matter spectroscopy and other interactions of matter with particles and radiation; Optical properties of bulk materials and thin films; Partial pressure; Physics; Pulsed lasers; Silicon substrates; Single-crystal and powder diffraction; Structure of solids and liquids; crystallography; Thin films; X-ray diffraction and scattering; Yttria; Yttrium oxide
• ISSN: 0169-4332; 1873-5584
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2011.03.156

► The microstructural and optical properties of yttria films as a function of wide substrate temperature and oxygen partial pressure range have been reported for the first time for the films prepared by pulsed laser deposition. ► The X-ray diffraction results indicated that the films were polycrystalline yttria films with (2 2 2) preferred orientation. ► Yttria thin films have good transparency of ∼90% in the wavelength range of 400–800 nm for the films deposited at 873 K and 0.2 Pa oxygen partial pressure. ► The band gap increases with increase in substrate temperature and decrease with increase in oxygen partial pressure as a consequence of increasing crystallite size. Yttrium oxide thin films were deposited on Si (1 1 1) and quartz substrates by pulsed laser deposition technique at different substrate temperature and oxygen partial pressure. XRD analysis shows that crystallite size of the yttrium oxide thin films increases as the substrate temperature increases from 300 to 873 K. However the films deposited at constant substrate temperature with variable oxygen partial pressure show opposite effect on the crystallite size. Band gap energies determined from UV–visible spectroscopy indicated higher values than that of the reported bulk value.