Study of High Transmittance of SiO<sub>2</sub>/Nb<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub> Multilayer Thin Films Deposited by Plasma-Assisted Reactive Magnetron Sputtering

SiO<sub>2</sub>/Nb<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub> multilayer thin films were designed for the special application of an aviation lighting system emitting green light. For optical components in this system to meet requirements such as a high transmittance and durability,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied Sciences
Main Authors: Soyoung Kim, Jung-Hwan In, Seon Hoon Kim, Karam Han, Dongkook Lim, Yun Sik Hwang, Kyung Min Lee, Ju Hyeon Choi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2023-12-01
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/13/24/13271
Description
Summary:SiO<sub>2</sub>/Nb<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub> multilayer thin films were designed for the special application of an aviation lighting system emitting green light. For optical components in this system to meet requirements such as a high transmittance and durability, SiO<sub>2</sub>/Nb<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub> multilayer thin films of 60 individual layers were fabricated by a plasma-assisted reactive magnetron sputtering method. As a result, the transmittance spectra were confirmed to have a flat top surface and a square bandwidth. The transmittances of the SiO<sub>2</sub>/Nb<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub> multilayer thin films in the range of 500 nm to 550 nm was approximately 96.14%. The reason for high transmittance was attributed to the almost matching between the designed and fabricated SiO<sub>2</sub>/Nb<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub> multilayer thin films. It was found that there was little difference in the total thickness between the designed and fabricated SiO<sub>2</sub>/Nb<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub> multilayer thin films without interlayer diffusion. The surface roughness and hardness of the SiO<sub>2</sub>/Nb<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub> multilayer thin films on a glass substrate was 2.32 nm ± 0.19 nm and 6.6 GPa, respectively. These results indicate that SiO<sub>2</sub>/Nb<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub> multilayer thin films can be applied not only to the optical filters used in aviation lighting devices, but also to various optics applications because of high transmittance.
ISSN:2076-3417