AVS 47th International Symposium
    Photonics Tuesday Sessions
       Session PH-TuA

Paper PH-TuA3
Optical Properties of Tantalum Oxide Films Produced by High Density Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition

Tuesday, October 3, 2000, 2:40 pm, Room 310

Session: Challenges in Photonics Materials and Device Processing
Presenter: J.B.O. Caughman, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Authors: J.B.O. Caughman, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
D.B. Beach, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
G.E. Jellison, Jr., Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Correspondent: Click to Email
Tantalum oxide films are being studied for use as waveguides for optical interconnect applications. The films have been deposited using a plasma enhanced CVD process using a high density inductively coupled plasma source. The inductively coupled source operates at 13.56 MHz and couples power to the plasma via a flat spiral coil. An oxygen plasma is produced in the ionization region and a tantalum containing precursor is injected downstream. The plasma produces atomic oxygen that interacts with the precursor in the gas phase as well as at the surface of the growing film. The deposition rate varies as the plasma coupling makes the transition from predominantly capacitive coupling to inductive coupling, which is related to the amount of atomic oxygen being produced. Gas phase composition is being determined by in-situ mass spectroscopy, and the optical properties of the films are being determined by using spectroscopic ellipsometry. Typical films have a bandgap of 4.3 eV and a refractive index of 2.19. The relationship between atomic oxygen production and films properties will be presented.