Fabrication and characteristics of silicon-rich oxide thin films with controllable compositions

Silicon-rich oxide films with controllable optical constants and properties are deposited by the reactive magnetron sputtering method on a Si target. The O/Si atomic ratio x of SiOx is tuned from 0.12 to 1.84 by adjusting the oxygen flow rate, which is found to be a more effective way to obtain SiOx films compared with changing the oxygen content [O2/(Ar+O2) ratio]. The optical properties of SiOx films can be tuned from semiconductor to dielectric as a function of ratio x. The structures and components are also investigated by an x ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis of the Si 2p core levels, the results of which exhibit that the structures of SiOx can be thoroughly described by the random bonding model.