Abstract

A stressometer has been developed to measure the evolution of total stress in thin films during growth. The instrument is based on a cat’s eye interferometer which measures the variations of curvature of a thin substrate during deposition. This instrument is installed on a Balzers-760 box coater equipped with a 12-cm Kaufman ion source. We have used this experimental setup to study stress in thin films of titanium dioxide grown on silicon substrates as a function of bombardment conditions. In this paper, we describe the experimental setup, present the stress measurements for different growth conditions, and discuss the results. In particular, we show how the stress evolves with increasing levels of bombardment, and how it varies with physical thickness.

© 1991 Optical Society of America