Optical Dispersion in ZrO2-SiO2 Composite Thin Films Prepared at Different Oxygen Partial Pressures

Abstract

Mixed composite materials are highly useful for fabrication of interference based precision multilayer optical devices because of their tunabile refractive imdex, tunable optical band gap and low optical losses with improved laser damage resistance. In the present study, ZrO2-SiO2 (90:10) mixed composite thin films have been prepared by electron-beam co-deposition at different oxygen partial pressures and the effect of oxygen pressure on the optical properties (refractive index, extinction co-efficient, band gap, etc) of such films have been investigated. The optical constants of the films have been derived by the inverse synthesis of transmission spectra obtained from spectrophotometric measurements.