Abstract

For most films produced by condensation from the vapor phase (physical vapor deposition, PVD) their physical and chemical structure and hence their optical properties deviate from those of the bulk material of nominally the same composition.¹ The extent of this deviation depends upon the particular deposition process.² Reactive Low Voltage Ion Plating (RLVIP) produces high density thin films that exhibit long term stability.³ However, because of the deposition conditions, optical absorption can be a significant problem.⁴ For many demanding optical applications, such as in laser systems, it is necessary to minimize the absorption of the deposited thin films. In this paper, RLVIP and conditions leading to thin films with some undesirable residual optical absorption are summarized. We will also describe experiments where the addition of small amounts of nitrogen gas to the plasma process environment reduced the optical absorption of tantala films made by RLVIP.

© 1992 Optical Society of America