The characterization and properties of mixed Sc2O3/SiO2 films

Scandium oxide (Sc2O3)/silicon oxide (SiO2) mixture films with different volume fractions were prepared by ion beam sputtering. The refractive indexes and the transmittance indexes of Sc2O3/SiO2 mixture films were mea-sured. It was found that refractive indexes and transmittance indexes were changed by varying the volume fractions of Sc2O3 in mixture films. In addition, the relationship between the residual stress in Sc2O3/SiO2 mixture films and the volume fractions of Sc2O3 was studied. In this experiment, the residual stress increased with the increase of the volume fractions of Sc2O3, which was due to the changes of the concentrations of interstitial oxygen and oxygen vacancy in mixture films. The concentrations of interstitial oxygen and oxygen vacancy were limited by the formation energy under different conditions, which was consistent with the result of positron annihilation. Finally, the relationship between the laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) of thin films and the content of Sc2O3 was investigated and the laser-induced damage morphologies of thin films were observed.