AVS 53rd International Symposium
    Advanced Surface Engineering Wednesday Sessions
       Session SE-WeM

Paper SE-WeM12
Optical Behaviour of Sculptured Thin Films

Wednesday, November 15, 2006, 11:40 am, Room 2007

Session: Glancing Angle Deposition
Presenter: E.B. Schubert, Leibniz-Institut für Oberflächenmodifizierung e.V., Germany
Authors: E.B. Schubert, Leibniz-Institut für Oberflächenmodifizierung e.V., Germany
F. Frost, Leibniz-Institut für Oberflächenmodifizierung e.V., Germany
J. Rivory, Pierre et Marie Curie Universit@aa e@, France
M. Schubert, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
B. Rauschenbach, Leibniz-Institut für Oberflächenmodifizierung e.V., Germany
Correspondent: Click to Email
Glancing angle ion beam assisted deposition in combination with a computer controlled substrate rotation is a sophisticated method for the growth of sculptured thin film consisting of three-dimensional building blocks with customized geometries. Glancing angle deposition uses a very oblique angle-of-incidence particle flow that produces a highly porous thin films structure. The building block geometry within the sculptured thin films can be tailored by utilizing an additional azimuthal substrate rotation or a continuous substrate tilt yielding for instance to chevron-, screw- or post-like nanostructures. Sculptured thin films are grown from different materials such as aluminium, silicon dioxide or silicon. The growth is studied with respect to the particle flux angle-of-incidence, substrate temperature, substrate surface and substrate movement. Physical properties of sculptured thin films are mainly influenced by the nature of their three-dimensional building block components. This phenomenon will be discussed exemplarily on structure related optical properties with special emphasize on the demonstration of chirality in sculptured thin films by experimental and theoretical investigation of three-dimensional Mueller Matrix elements. Additionally, concepts for sub-wavelength antireflection coatings and optical nanogratings obtained from self-organized sculptured thin film growth will be demonstrated.