In this work thin silver oxide layers (AgOx) were prepared by reactive sputtering of a silver target in oxygen containing atmosphere. We report a gradual composition change of the deposited layers with increasing oxygen concentration from Ag over Ag2O to AgO and furthermore that dispersed silver clusters are present even up to high O2 concentrations. Raman- along with IR-spectroscopy and ellipsometric measurements reveal specified compounds at defined oxygen concentrations. Optical transmission and reflection measurements as a function of temperature show that these compounds exhibit phase transitions (i.e. AgO decomposes to Ag2O and finally to Ag), connected to considerable refractive index changes. This work was done with respect to super-Resolution Near-Field Structures where these effects are exploited to realize ultra high optical data storage in combination with magneto-optical and phase change recording materials.
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Büchel et al. (2001) studied this question.
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