Optical constants of evaporation-deposited silicon monoxide films in the 7.1-800 eV photon energy range

The transmittance of silicon monoxide films prepared by thermal evaporation was measured from 7.1 to 800 eV and used to determine the optical constants of the material. SiO films deposited onto C-coated microgrids in ultrahigh vacuum conditions were measured in situ from 7.1 to 23.1 eV. Grid-supported SiO films deposited in high vacuum conditions were characterized ex situ from 28.5 to 800 eV. At each photon energy, transmittance, and thickness data were used to calculate the extinction coefficient k. The obtained k values combined with data from the literature, and with interpolations and extrapolations in the rest of the electromagnetic spectrum provided a complete set of k values that was used in a Kramers-Kronig analysis to obtain the real part of the index of refraction, n. Two different sum-rule tests were performed that indicated good consistency of the data. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3123768]