THE GROWTH AND CHARACTERIZATION OF

PHOTONIC THIN FILMS 

John. T. Grant

Research Institute

University of Dayton

300 College Park

Dayton, OH 45469-0051

 USA

ABSTRACT

Photonic thin films have been grown on a variety of substrates using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of organic monomers. Films produced by both mono-polymerization and co-polymerization have been prepared and analyzed. The films have been characterized by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and variable-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry (VASE). Studies of the mechanisms of the homo- and copolymerization reactions have aided in the optimization of the fabrication of photonic films. The effects of monomer feed-in rates and feed-in positions were applied to manipulate the composition and chemistry of the deposited films in order to achieve the required optical properties.

This presentation will emphasize the characterization of plasma polymerized films using XPS. Films to be included are HMDS barrier layers, mono-polymerization and co-polymerization of benzene and octafluorocyclobutane thin films, and recent work to increase the refractive index of PECVD polymer films using ferrocene and titanium isopropoxide.