Summary: | A distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) composed of Y<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>-doped HfO<sub>2</sub> (YDH)/SiO<sub>2</sub> layers with high reflectivity spectrum centered at a wavelength of ~240 nm is fabricated using radio-frequency magnetron sputtering. Before the DBR deposition, optical properties for a single layer of YDH, SiO<sub>2</sub>, and HfO<sub>2</sub> thin films were studied using spectroscopic ellipsometry and spectrophotometry. To investigate the performance of YDH as a material for the high refractive index layer in the DBR, a comparison of its optical properties was made with HfO<sub>2</sub> thin films. Due to larger optical bandgap, the YDH thin films demonstrated higher transparency, lower extinction coefficient, and lower absorption coefficient in the UV-C regime (especially for wavelengths below 250 nm) compared to the HfO<sub>2</sub> thin films. The fabricated YDH/SiO<sub>2</sub> DBR consisting of 15 periods achieved a reflectivity higher than 99.9% at the wavelength of ~240 nm with a stopband of ~50 nm. The high reflectivity and broad stopband of YDH/SiO<sub>2</sub> DBRs will enable further advancement of various photonic devices such as vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers, resonant-cavity light-emitting diodes, and resonant-cavity photodetectors operating in the UV-C wavelength regime.
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