Ming-Chung Liu

Microstructure-related properties at 193 nm of MgF2 and GdF3 films deposited by a resistive-heating boat.

MgF2 and GdF3 materials, used for a single-layer coating at 193 nm, are deposited by a resistive-heating boat at specific substrate temperatures. Optical characteristics (transmittance, refractive index, extinction coefficient, and optical loss) and microstructures (morphology and crystalline structure) are investigated and discussed. Furthermore, MgF2 is used as a low-index material, and GdF3 is used as a high-index material for multilayer coatings. Reflectance, stress, and the laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) are studied. It is shown that MgF2 and GdF3 thin films, deposited on the substrate at a temperature of 300 degrees C, obtain good quality thin films with high transmittance and little optical loss at 193 nm. For multilayer coatings, the stress mainly comes from MgF2, and the absorption comes from GdF3. Among those coatings, the sixteen-layer design, sub/(1.4L 0.6H)8/air, shows the largest LIDT.

Characterization of AlF 3 thin films at 193 nm by thermal evaporation

Aluminum fluoride (AlF3) was deposited by a resistive heating boat. To obtain a low optical loss and high laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) at 193 nm, the films were investigated under different substrate temperatures, deposition rates, and annealing after coating. The optical property (the transmittance, refractive index, extinction coefficient, and optical loss) at 193 nm, microstructure (the cross-sectional morphology, surface roughness, and crystalline structure), mechanical property (stress), and LIDT of AlF3 thin films have been studied. AlF3 thin films deposited at a high substrate temperature and low deposition rate showed a lower optical loss. The highest LIDT occurred at the substrate temperature of 150 degrees C. The LIDT of the films prepared at a deposition rate of 2 A/s was higher than that at other deposition rates. The annealing process did not influence the optical properties too much, but it did increase the LIDT and stress.

High efficiency yellow organic light-emitting diodes with a solution-processed molecular host-based emissive layer

Highly efficient yellow organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with a solution-process feasible emissive layer were fabricated by simply using molecular hosts doped with an iridium-complex based yellow emitter. The best yellow OLED device studied here showed for example, at 100 cd m−2, a power efficiency of 32 lm W−1, a 113% improvement compared with the prior record of 15 lm W−1 based on the same emitter with a polymeric host. The marked efficiency improvement may be attributed to the device being composed of an electron-injection-barrier free architecture, a device structure that led the excitons to generate preferably on the host to enable the efficiency-effective host-to-guest energy transfer to occur and the employed molecular host that exhibited a good host-to-guest energy transfer. The efficiencies were further improved to 53, 39 and 14 lm W−1 at 100, 1000 and 10 000 cd m−2, respectively, with the use of a micro-lens. This study also demonstrates the possibility of achieving relatively high device efficiency for wet-processed OLED devices via balancing the injection of carriers with commercially available OLED materials and limited designs in device structure.

Residual stress in obliquely deposited MgF2 thin films.

MgF(2) films with a columnar microstructure are obliquely deposited on glass substrates by resistive heating evaporation. The columnar angles of the films increases with the deposition angle. Anisotropic stress does not develop in the films with tilted columns. The residual stresses in the films depend on the deposition and columnar angles in a columnar microstructure.

AlF(3) thin films deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering with Al target.

Aluminum fluoride thin films have been deposited by magnetron sputtering of an aluminum target with CF(4) , and CF(4) mixed O(2) as the working gas onto a room temperature substrate. The quality of the coated AlF(3) film applied with 25W sputtering power using CF(4) mixed 5% O(2) was better than for films deposited using conventional methods. The extinction coefficient of AlF(3) was smaller than 6.0x10(-4) in the wavelength range of 190nm to 250nm. Single layer antireflection coatings on both sides of a fused silica substrate increased the transmittance from less than 91% for a bare substrate to higher than 96% in the wavelength range between 190nm to 250nm.

Microstructure of magnesium fluoride films deposited by boat evaporation at 193 nm

Single layer magnesium fluoride (MgF2) was deposited on fused-silica substrates by a molybdenum boat evaporation process at 193 nm. The formation of various microstructures in relation to the different substrate temperatures and deposition rates were investigated. The relation between these microstructures (including cross-sectional morphology, surface roughness, and crystalline structures), the optical properties (including refractive index and optical loss) and stress, were all investigated. It was found that the laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) would be affected by the microstructure, optical loss, and stress of the thin film. To obtain a larger LIDT value and better optical characteristics, MgF2 films should be deposited at a high substrate temperature (300 degrees C) and at a low deposition rate (0.05 nm s(-1)).

Effects of Ion Assistance and Substrate Temperature on Optical Characteristics and Microstructure of MgF2 Films Formed by Electron-Beam Evaporation

Magnesium fluoride thin films were prepared by electron-beam evaporation and ion-assisted deposition (IAD). The effects of ion assistance and substrate temperature during deposition on the optical properties and microstructure were studied. The grain size, the crystallinity and the surface roughness of MgF2 films deposited without ion assistance all decreased with substrate temperature. MgF2 films deposited with IAD exhibited small grains, rough surfaces, fluorine deficiencies and large optical losses in the 200–500 nm wavelength range when bombarded with argon ions.

Developing new manufacturing methods for the improvement of AlF 3 thin films

In this research, the plasma etching mechanism which is applied to deposit AlF(3) thin films has been discussed in detail. Different ratios of O(2) gas were injected in the sputtering process and then the optical properties and microstructure of the thin films were examined. The best optical quality and smallest surface roughness was obtained when the AlF(3) thin films were coated with O(2):CF(4) (12 sccm:60 sccm) at 30 W sputtering power. To increase the deposition rate for industrial application, the sputtering power was increased to 200 W with the best ratio of O(2)/CF(4) gas. The results show that the deposition rate at 200W sputtering power was 7.43 times faster than that at 30 W sputtering power and the extinction coefficients deposited at 200 W are less than 6.8 x 10(-4) at the wavelength range from 190 nm to 700 nm. To compare the deposition with only CF(4) gas at 200 W sputtering power, the extinction coefficient of the thin films improve from 4.4 x 10(-3) to 6 x 10(-4) at the wavelength of 193 nm. In addition, the structure of the film deposited at 200W was amorphous-like with a surface roughness of 0.8 nm.

Influence of thermal annealing and ultraviolet light irradiation on LaF3 thin films at 193 nm.

Lanthanum fluoride (LaF3) thin films were prepared by resistive heating evaporation and electron-beam gun evaporation under the same deposition rate, deposition substrate temperature, and vacuum pressure. The coated LaF3 films were then treated by heat annealing and UV light irradiation. The optical properties, microstructures, stress, and laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) at a wavelength of 193 nm were investigated. The surface roughness, optical loss, stress, and LIDT of the films were improved after the annealing. The films had better properties when irradiated by UV light as compared with heat annealing.

Process for deposition of AlF 3 thin films

We fabricated aluminum fluoride (AlF3) thin films by pulsed DC magnetron sputtering with various CF4 flow rates and sputtering powers. Our method is distinct from the conventional deposition process in that we used inexpensive Al (99.99% purity) as the target instead of an expensive fluoride compound. The optical properties and microstructure of the thin films were examined. The optical quality of AlF3 thin films deposited at a 20 W sputtering power and injected 110 SCCM (SCCM denotes cubic centimeters per minute at standard temperature and pressure) CF4 flow at room temperature showed improvement with an extinction coefficient of less than 7×10-4 at 193 nm. The deposition of AlF3 thin films at different substrate temperatures and annealed by UV light was also investigated.