Abstract

Aluminum oxynitride thin films were made by nitrogen or the mixture of nitrogen and oxygen ion bombardment on growing Al films in an oxygen backfilled chamber. Refractive indices of AlO_xN_y thin films were varied from 1.68 to 1.84 at 550 nm by controlling the backfilled oxygen pressure, while the deposition and ion gun parameters were kept constant. The relationship between the optical constants and stoichiometry (x and y) was obtained. High reflectors were made using AlO_xN_y homogeneous step-index layers and showed no vacuum-to-air shift. From an XRD, AlO_xN_y thin films turned out to be amorphous.

© 1988 Optical Society of America