Influence of deposition parameters on optical properties of silicon oxycarbide thin films

On Si (1 0 0) and K9 glass, SiCO thin films were produced by radio-frequency sputtering with silicon oxycarbide target, respectively. And the influence of substrate temperature, working pressure and sputtering power on optical properties of SiCO thin films was studied. The optical properties of films were carried out through spectroscopic ellipsometer and UV/vis/IR spectrophotometer. Results showed that SiCO thin films presented excellent optical properties and exhibited a wide range of properties through a change of deposition parameters. Deposition rate and refractive index changed regularly with the variety of deposition parameters, while the dependence of these two properties to deposition parameters was opposite. Refractive index of SiCO ranges from 1.86 to 2.26 on Si (1 0 0), and 1.80 to 2.20 on K9 glass. With decreasing substrate temperature and sputtering power or increasing work pressure, the spectra transmittance was improved, and the average spectra transmittances were more than 80%.