Effects of elevated-temperature deposition on the atomic structure of amorphous Ta2O5 films
- Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
- Sungkyunkwan Univ., Suwon (Republic of Korea)
- Ecole Polytechnique, Montreal, QC (Canada)
- Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States)
- Univ. of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland (United Kingdom)
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)
- Univ. of Montreal, QC (Canada)
- Xerion Advanced Battery Corporation, Kettering, OH (United States)
- California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
Brownian thermal noise as a result of mechanical loss in optical coatings will become the dominant source of noise at the most sensitive frequencies of ground-based gravitational-wave detectors. Experiments found, however, that a candidate material, amorphous Ta2O5, is unable to form an ultrastable glass and, consequently, to yield a film with significantly reduced mechanical loss through elevated-temperature deposition alone. X-ray scattering PDF measurements are carried out on films deposited and subsequently annealed at various temperatures. Inverse atomic modeling is used to analyze the short and medium range features in the atomic structure of these films. Furthermore, in silico deposition simulations of Ta2O5 are carried out at various substrate temperatures and an atomic level analysis of the growth at high temperatures is presented. It is observed that upon elevated-temperature deposition, short range features remain identical, whereas medium range order increases. After annealing, however, both the short and medium range orders of films deposited at different substrate temperatures are nearly identical. A discussion on the surface diffusion and glass transition temperatures indicates that future pursuits of ultrastable low-mechanical-loss films through elevated temperature deposition should focus on materials with a high surface mobility, and/or lower glass transition temperatures in the range of achievable deposition temperatures.
- Research Organization:
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF); US Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research (ONR)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-76SF00515; PHY-2011571; PHY-2011706; PHY-2011782; ACI-1548562; N000-17-1-2536
- OSTI ID:
- 2327109
- Journal Information:
- APL Materials, Vol. 11, Issue 12; ISSN 2166-532X
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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