skip to main content


Title: Modifications of ion beam sputtered tantala thin films by secondary argon and oxygen bombardment

Amorphous tantala (Ta2O5) thin films were deposited by reactive ion beam sputtering with simultaneous low energy assistAr+orAr+/O2+bombardment. Under the conditions of the experiment, the as-deposited thin films are amorphous and stoichiometric. The refractive index and optical band gap of thin films remain unchanged by ion bombardment. Around 20% improvement in room temperature mechanical loss and 60% decrease in absorption loss are found in samples bombarded with 100-eVAr+. A detrimental influence from low energyO2+bombardment on absorption loss and mechanical loss is observed. Low energyAr+bombardment removes excess oxygen point defects, whileO2+bombardment introduces defects into the tantala films.

 
more » « less
Award ID(s):
1710957 1708175 1707866
NSF-PAR ID:
10130458
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Optical Society of America
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Applied Optics
Volume:
59
Issue:
5
ISSN:
1559-128X; APOPAI
Page Range / eLocation ID:
Article No. A150
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Optical coatings formed from amorphous oxide thin films have many applications in precision measurements. The Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Advanced Virgo use coatings ofSiO2(silica) andTiO2:Ta2O5(titania-doped tantala) and post-deposition annealing to 500°C to achieve low thermal noise and low optical absorption. Optical scattering by these coatings is a key limit to the sensitivity of the detectors. This paper describes optical scattering measurements for single-layer, ion-beam-sputtered thin films on fused silica substrates: two samples ofTa2O5and two ofTiO2:Ta2O5. Using an imaging scatterometer at a fixed scattering angle of 12.8°, in-situ changes in the optical scatter of each sample were assessed during post-deposition annealing to 500°C in vacuum. The scatter of three of the four coated optics was observed to decrease during the annealing process, by 25–30% for tantala and up to 74% for titania-doped tantala, while the scatter from the fourth sample held constant. Angle-resolved scatter measurements performed before and after vacuum annealing suggest some improvement in three of the four samples. These results demonstrate that post-deposition, high-temperature annealing of single-layer tantala and titania-doped tantala thin films in vacuum does not lead to an increase in scatter, and may actually improve their scatter.

     
    more » « less
  2. Temperature scaling of collisional broadening parameters for krypton (absorber)4p6S01→<#comment/>5p[3/2]2electronic transition centered at 107.3 nm in the presence of major combustion species (perturber) is investigated. The absorption spectrum in the vicinity of the transition is obtained from the fluorescence due to the two-photon excitation scan of krypton. Krypton was added in small amounts to major combustion species such asCH4,CO2,N2, and air, which then heated to elevated temperatures when flowed through a set of heated coils. In a separate experimental campaign, laminar premixed flat flame product mixtures of methane combustion were employed to extend the investigations to higher temperature ranges relevant to combustion. Collisional full width half maximum (FWHM) (wC) and shift (δ<#comment/>C) were computed from the absorption spectrum by synthetically fitting Voigt profiles to the excitation scans, and their corresponding temperature scaling was determined by fitting power-law temperature dependencies to thewCandδ<#comment/>Cdata for each perturber species. The temperature exponents ofwCandδ<#comment/>Cfor all considered combustion species (perturbers) were−<#comment/>0.73and−<#comment/>0.6, respectively. Whereas the temperature exponents ofwCare closer to the value (−<#comment/>0.7) predicted by the dispersive interaction collision theory, the corresponding exponents ofδ<#comment/>Care in between the dispersive interaction theory and the kinetic theory of hard-sphere collisions. Comparison with existing literature on broadening parameters of NO, OH, and CO laser-induced fluorescence spectra reveal interesting contributions from non-dispersive interactions on the temperature exponent.

     
    more » « less
  3. We report on spectroscopic measurements on the4f76s28S7/2∘<#comment/>→<#comment/>4f7(8S∘<#comment/>)6s6p(1P∘<#comment/>)8P9/2transition in neutral europium-151 and europium-153 at 459.4 nm. The center of gravity frequencies for the 151 and 153 isotopes, reported for the first time in this paper, to our knowledge, were found to be 652,389,757.16(34) MHz and 652,386,593.2(5) MHz, respectively. The hyperfine coefficients for the6s6p(1P∘<#comment/>)8P9/2state were found to beA(151)=−<#comment/>228.84(2)MHz,B(151)=226.9(5)MHzandA(153)=−<#comment/>101.87(6)MHz,B(153)=575.4(1.5)MHz, which all agree with previously published results except for A(153), which shows a small discrepancy. The isotope shift is found to be 3163.8(6) MHz, which also has a discrepancy with previously published results.

     
    more » « less
  4. Electro-optic quantum coherent interfaces map the amplitude and phase of a quantum signal directly to the phase or intensity of a probe beam. At terahertz frequencies, a fundamental challenge is not only to sense such weak signals (due to a weak coupling with a probe in the near-infrared) but also to resolve them in the time domain. Cavity confinement of both light fields can increase the interaction and achieve strong coupling. Using this approach, current realizations are limited to low microwave frequencies. Alternatively, in bulk crystals, electro-optic sampling was shown to reach quantum-level sensitivity of terahertz waves. Yet, the coupling strength was extremely weak. Here, we propose an on-chip architecture that concomitantly provides subcycle temporal resolution and an extreme sensitivity to sense terahertz intracavity fields below 20 V/m. We use guided femtosecond pulses in the near-infrared and a confinement of the terahertz wave to a volume ofVTHz∼<#comment/>10−<#comment/>9(λ<#comment/>THz/2)3in combination with ultraperformant organic molecules (r33=170pm/V) and accomplish a record-high single-photon electro-optic coupling rate ofgeo=2π<#comment/>×<#comment/>0.043GHz, 10,000 times higher than in recent reports of sensing vacuum field fluctuations in bulk media. Via homodyne detection implemented directly on chip, the interaction results into an intensity modulation of the femtosecond pulses. The single-photon cooperativity isC0=1.6×<#comment/>10−<#comment/>8, and the multiphoton cooperativity isC=0.002at room temperature. We show><#comment/>70dBdynamic range in intensity at 500 ms integration under irradiation with a weak coherent terahertz field. Similar devices could be employed in future measurements of quantum states in the terahertz at the standard quantum limit, or for entanglement of subsystems on subcycle temporal scales, such as terahertz and near-infrared quantum bits.

     
    more » « less
  5. For each odd integern≥<#comment/>3n \geq 3, we construct a rank-3 graphΛ<#comment/>n\Lambda _nwith involutionγ<#comment/>n\gamma _nwhose realC∗<#comment/>C^*-algebraCR∗<#comment/>(Λ<#comment/>n,γ<#comment/>n)C^*_{\scriptscriptstyle \mathbb {R}}(\Lambda _n, \gamma _n)is stably isomorphic to the exotic Cuntz algebraEn\mathcal E_n. This construction is optimal, as we prove that a rank-2 graph with involution(Λ<#comment/>,γ<#comment/>)(\Lambda ,\gamma )can never satisfyCR∗<#comment/>(Λ<#comment/>,γ<#comment/>)∼<#comment/>MEEnC^*_{\scriptscriptstyle \mathbb {R}}(\Lambda , \gamma )\sim _{ME} \mathcal E_n, and Boersema reached the same conclusion for rank-1 graphs (directed graphs) in [Münster J. Math.10(2017), pp. 485–521, Corollary 4.3]. Our construction relies on a rank-1 graph with involution(Λ<#comment/>,γ<#comment/>)(\Lambda , \gamma )whose realC∗<#comment/>C^*-algebraCR∗<#comment/>(Λ<#comment/>,γ<#comment/>)C^*_{\scriptscriptstyle \mathbb {R}}(\Lambda , \gamma )is stably isomorphic to the suspensionSRS \mathbb {R}. In the Appendix, we show that theii-fold suspensionSiRS^i \mathbb {R}is stably isomorphic to a graph algebra iff−<#comment/>2≤<#comment/>i≤<#comment/>1-2 \leq i \leq 1.

     
    more » « less