TY - JOUR
T1 - Waveguide refractometry as a probe of thin film optical uniformity
AU - Potter, B. G.
AU - Dimos, D.
AU - Sinclair, M. B.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors wish to express their appreciation to R. W. Schwartz and S. Lockwood for helpful discussions, A. Sanchez for sample preparation, W. Buttry for Auger spectroscopy, and G. Zender for scanning electron microscopy. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC04-94AL85000.
PY - 1997/2
Y1 - 1997/2
N2 - Optical inhomogeneities through the thickness of a sol-gel-derived, spin-coated Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) thin film have been evaluated using prism-coupled waveguide refractometry. Unusual waveguide coupling angle behavior has been treated using a multilayer model to describe the optical characteristics of the film. Waveguide refractometry measurements, performed after incremental reductions in film thickness, were used to develop a consistent model for optical inhomogeneity through the film thickness. Specifically, a thin film layer model, consisting of alternating layers of high and low refractive index material, was found to accurately predict irregularities in transverse-electric (TE) mode coupling angles exhibited by the film. This layer structure has a spatial periodicity that is consistent with the positions of the upper film surface at intermediate firings during film synthesis. The correlation emphasizes the impact of the multistep thin-film deposition approach on the optical characteristics of the resulting thin film.
AB - Optical inhomogeneities through the thickness of a sol-gel-derived, spin-coated Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) thin film have been evaluated using prism-coupled waveguide refractometry. Unusual waveguide coupling angle behavior has been treated using a multilayer model to describe the optical characteristics of the film. Waveguide refractometry measurements, performed after incremental reductions in film thickness, were used to develop a consistent model for optical inhomogeneity through the film thickness. Specifically, a thin film layer model, consisting of alternating layers of high and low refractive index material, was found to accurately predict irregularities in transverse-electric (TE) mode coupling angles exhibited by the film. This layer structure has a spatial periodicity that is consistent with the positions of the upper film surface at intermediate firings during film synthesis. The correlation emphasizes the impact of the multistep thin-film deposition approach on the optical characteristics of the resulting thin film.
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U2 - 10.1557/JMR.1997.0078
DO - 10.1557/JMR.1997.0078
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0031077442
SN - 0884-2914
VL - 12
SP - 546
EP - 551
JO - Journal of Materials Research
JF - Journal of Materials Research
IS - 2
ER -