Optical and structural properties of Ge-Ga-Te amorphous thin films fabricated by magnetron sputtering

We deposited amorphous Ge-Ga-Te thin films by the magnetron sputtering method, and investigated the corresponding structural and optical properties by various diagnosis tools. The as-deposited film is amorphous, while crystalline features appear gradually with increasing annealing temperature. The optical band-gap and refractive index for the as-deposited and annealed films were analyzed as a function of chemical composition. It was also found that, with increasing Te and decreasing Ge and Ga content, the films usually exhibited a higher refractive index as well as a smaller optical band gap, and the optical band gap decreased with increasing annealing temperature. These results are useful to the fabrication of integrated optical devices for the biomedical sensing applications.