Effect of substrate temperature during combustion chemical vapour deposition on the formation of silica films

Combustion chemical vapour deposition was applied to deposit thin silica films on soda-lime-silica glass substrates. For this purpose, a flame loaded with tetramethylsilane was passed one to 15 times over the substrate. The deposition was carried out using different substrate temperatures in the range from 50 to 500 °C. The coatings were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, profilometry and UV/vis spectroscopy. All layers show a particle-like structure. Higher substrate temperatures resulted in a smaller deposition rate. The thicknesses of the coatings were in the range from 20 to 180 nm. All coated glasses showed a higher light transmission than the uncoated substrate. Increasing the thickness of the coatings, resulted in a higher transmission.