Effect of the working gas of the ion-assisted source on the optical and mechanical properties of SiO_2 films deposited by dual ion beam sputtering with Si and SiO_2 as the starting materials

Silicon and fused-silica targets are used as the starting materials for depositing silicon oxide (SiO2) films. The SiO2 films are prepared by a dual ion beam sputtering deposition system with a main ion source and an ion-assisted source with different working gases. The films deposited are then examined and compared by using a visible spectrophotometer, a Fourier-transform IR spectrophotometer, an atomic force microscope, and contact angle instruments. A Twyman-Green interferometer is employed to study the film stress by phase-shift interferometry. All the SiO2 films show excellent optical properties with extra-low extinction coefficients (below 2x10(-5)) and have no water absorption. When the working gas is O2 for the ion-assisted source, the deposited SiO2 films show good properties in terms of stress and roughness and with a good molecular bonding structure order for both targets. However, SiO2 films deposited from the fused-silica target had a larger contact angle, while those deposited from the silicon target had 2.5 times the deposition rate.