High-Density Nanomorph Metal Oxide Films
H.K. Pulker1, U. Kaiser2, S. Yulin3
1
Institute of Ion- and Applied Physics, University of Innsbruck, Austria
Material Science Electron Microscopy, University of Ulm, Germany
3
Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering, Jena, Germany
2
Metal oxide films – e.g. silica, tantalum-, and niobium-pentoxide – deposited with energetic
coating technologies, especially by reactive-low-voltage-ion-plating RLVIP, are obtained as
dense metastable constrained amorphous deposits. These films show excellent optical
properties and have a continuous glass-like microstructure and very smooth surface.
Based on electron optical investigations and X-ray reflectance measurements it will be
obvious that the properties of such films are clearly different from materials obtained by
simple cooling of a melt or conventional condensing vapour on a solid substrate.
Unfortunately, our knowledge about these high-density amorphous solids is rather poor.
In this paper the results of preliminary structural investigations of amorphous high-density
RLVIP-Ta2O5- and RLVIP-Nb2O5-films will be presented.