Bernhard von Blanckenhagen

Application of the Tauc-Lorentz formulation to the interband absorption of optical coating materials

Recent progress in ellipsometry instrumentation permits precise measurement and characterization of optical coating materials in the deep-UV wavelength range. Dielectric coating materials exhibit their first electronic interband transition in this spectral range. The Tauc-Lorentz model is a powerful tool with which to parameterize interband absorption above the band edge. The application of this model for the parameterization of the optical absorption of TiO2, Ta2O5, HfO2, Al2O3, and LaF3 thin-film materials is described.

Practical layer designs for polarizing beam-splitter cubes.

Liquid-crystal-on-silicon- (LCoS-) based digital projection systems require high-performance polarizing beam splitters. The classical beam-splitter cube with an immersed interference coating can fulfill these requirements. Practical layer designs can be generated by computer optimization using the classic MacNeille polarizer layer design as the starting layer design. Multilayer structures with 100 nm bandwidth covering the blue, green, or red spectral region and one design covering the whole visible spectral region are designed. In a second step these designs are realized by using plasma-ion-assisted deposition. The performance of the practical beam-splitter cubes is compared with the theoretical performance of the layer designs.

Correlation between the optical performance of TiO2-Ag-TiO2 multilayers and the interface roughness between the layers

Ag-dielectric multilayers are widely used in the production of heat reflecting filters, induced transmission filters, beam splitters, etc. The performance of such coatings in the visible part of the spectrum is sometimes strongly influenced by a plasmon absorption in the Ag-layer or a surface plasmon absorption in the Ag-dielectric interfaces. The strength of the plasmon absorption is very sensitive to the layer structure, the light polarization and the angle of incidence. As a result, the target specifications for reflection and transmission are not reached easily. We investigate PVD-deposited TiO2-Ag-TiO2 multilayers by means of optical reflection and transmission and Grazing Incidence X-ray Reflectometry (GIXR). The GIXR-method yields the individual layers thicknesses and the interface roughness. Some of the coatings have a broad absorption peak between 500 and 400nm that cannot be modeled using the bulk dielectric function of Ag. The magnitude of the absorption peak is correlated with the measured roughness of the TiO2-Ag interfaces. The analysis of the results shows the critical parameters for the deposition process.

Characterization of multilayer dielectric coatings by ellipsometry and x-ray grazing incidence reflectometry

Thin film multilayer dielectric coatings are widely used for the fabrication of various optical components. The precise knowledg of the optical constants and the thickness of the individual layers is one of the most important factors for the successful design and production of optical interference coatings with optimal performance. As thin film materials within a multilayer stack often have different optical constants compared to single layers deposited at the same conditions a disagreement between measured and predicted optical response of a multilayer system is observed. A better agreement can be achieved if the optical constants of the layer materials are determined from measurements of multilayer stacks. In the present work such an approach is applied for the optical characterization of popular optical coating materials. The optical constants of TiO2, Ta2O5, Al2O3 and HfO2 are determined in the spectral region 200 nm up to 800 nm using the following measurement techniques: spectroscopic ellipsometry, intensity transmission and X-ray grazing incidence reflectometry. The measured samples are periodic stacks consisting of 12 layers made of one of these materials in combination with SiO2. The ellipsometric and intensity transmission data are fitted simultaneously using the Tauc-Lorentz parameterization for the optical constants of the layers. The results are compared with the thickness of the layers obtained from X-ray grazing incidence reflectometry. The comparison of the predicted and measured optical response of a 3 material multilayer stack demonstrates the accuracy of the extracted optical constants.

Influence of the amorphous character of Al2O3 layers on their use in the Deep UV spectral range

Amorphous layers of metal oxides deposited by Plasma Ion Assisted Deposition (PIAD) are widely used in the field of optical coatings due to their salient properties which enable the deposition of complex multilayer stacks. However, their use in the Deep UV spectral range is restricted as the range of transparency is limited by the absorption due to the first electronic band transition. The only oxide suitable for applications at 193 nm seems to be Al2O3 for which a band gap energy of 8.7 eV (143 nm) is reported for the crystalline state. Yet for thin layers of Al2O3 no work reports the making of absorption free layers at 193 nm. In this study we investigate how the amorphous structure of PIAD-deposited Al2O3 thin films influences the electronic structure and as a consequence of that the absorption behaviour for wavelengths close to the absorption edge. The electronic structure is worked out by a theoretical approach where in a first step the geometric structure is simulated using a Monte Carlo approach. Using this geometric structure the electronic structure is calculated by the tight-binding method in a second step. With these data absorption spectra are calculated and compared to measurements on PIAD Al2O3 layers. The experimental data for the start of the absorption lie on the longer wavelength side of the limit set by the amorphous structure - a fact, that encourages further work on the optimization of the deposition parameters.