Rf‐sputtering growth of stoichiometric amorphous TeO2 thin films

Abstract Amorphous stoichiometric thin films of TeO 2 have been successfully grown by reactive rf‐sputtering deposition. The proper choice of deposition parameters such as the rf power, the Ar/O 2 composition and pressure of the sputtering gas, the substrate temperature, enabled us to obtain TeO x films of different thickness (up to 2.4 µm) with constant and reproducible optical and structural characteristics. The x value was calculated from RBS measurements to be equal to 2.04 ± 0.08 and all films showed good optical transparency in the visible and near infrared range. The structure of the films was studied by XRD, TEM and SAD, and it was found to be amorphous with the presence of rare and small Te crystallites. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)