Multi-techniques characterisation of anti-reflective Ta2O5 and TaOxNy thin films deposited by reactive sputtering: coupling X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning/transmission electron microscopy and ion beam analysis

IF 2 4区材料科学 Q3 MATERIALS SCIENCE, COATINGS & FILMS

Thin Solid Films Pub Date : 2025-06-14 DOI:10.1016/j.tsf.2025.140725

Florian Chabanais , Babacar Diallo , Aissatou Diop , Angélique Bousquet , Thierry Sauvage , Béatrice Plujat , Sébastien Quoizola , Audrey Soum-Glaude , Laurent Thomas , Éric Tomasella , Antoine Goullet , Mireille Richard-Plouet

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

TaO_xN_y thin films were elaborated by reactive magnetron sputtering of a Ta target in an Ar/N₂/O₂ plasma mixture. These layers are intended to be used as antireflective coatings in systems for concentrated solar applications (operating temperature around 500 °C in air). The investigation of these layers using a set of complementary techniques, including transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and ion beam analysis (IBA), revealed the impact of nitrogen flux during deposition on the overall morphology and elemental composition. These characterizations also highlighted the various chemical environments constituting the thin films, ranging from oxidized environments (Ta₂O₅) to oxynitride and nitride environments (TaO_xN_y and Ta₃N₅). It was also shown that with a low nitrogen flow, nitrogen is present only near the substrate and is absent in the rest of the layer. The IBA technique was also carried out to quantify the concentration of light elements as a function of depth, in particular H, which is not detected by the other techniques used in this paper (XPS and TEM). It has been shown that the majority of hydrogen atoms is incorporated into thin films during deposition as hydroxyl groups or only close to the surface, depending on the samples.

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反应溅射制备抗反射Ta2O5和TaOxNy薄膜的多技术表征：耦合x射线光电子能谱、扫描/透射电子显微镜和离子束分析

在Ar/N2/O2混合等离子体中，用反应磁控溅射法制备了TaOxNy薄膜。这些层被用作聚光太阳能应用系统的抗反射涂层（在空气中工作温度约为500°C）。利用一系列互补技术，包括透射电子显微镜（TEM）、x射线光电子能谱（XPS）和离子束分析（IBA）对这些层进行了研究，揭示了沉积过程中氮通量对整体形貌和元素组成的影响。这些表征也突出了构成薄膜的各种化学环境，从氧化环境（Ta2O5）到氮化氧环境（TaOxNy和Ta3N5）。结果还表明，在低氮流量下，氮只在基体附近存在，而在层的其余部分不存在。IBA技术也被用于量化轻元素的浓度作为深度的函数，特别是H，这是本文中使用的其他技术（XPS和TEM）无法检测到的。研究表明，根据样品的不同，大多数氢原子在沉积过程中以羟基的形式结合到薄膜中，或者仅靠近表面。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Thin Solid Films 工程技术-材料科学：膜

CiteScore

4.00

自引率

4.80%

发文量

381

审稿时长

7.5 months

期刊介绍： Thin Solid Films is an international journal which serves scientists and engineers working in the fields of thin-film synthesis, characterization, and applications. The field of thin films, which can be defined as the confluence of materials science, surface science, and applied physics, has become an identifiable unified discipline of scientific endeavor.