Measurement and modeling of short and medium range order in amorphous Ta2O5 thin films

Shyam, Badri; Stone, Kevin H.; Bassiri, Riccardo; Fejer, Martin M.; Toney, Michael F.; Mehta, Apurva

doi:10.1038/srep32170

Title: Measurement and modeling of short and medium range order in amorphous Ta₂O₅ thin films

Journal Article · Fri Aug 26 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Scientific Reports

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/srep32170· OSTI ID:1326209

Shyam, Badri ^[1]; Stone, Kevin H. ^[1]; Bassiri, Riccardo ^[2]; Fejer, Martin M. ^[2]; Toney, Michael F. ^[1]; Mehta, Apurva ^[1]

SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)

Here, amorphous films and coatings are rapidly growing in importance. Yet, there is a dearth of high-quality structural data on sub-micron films. Not understanding how these materials assemble at atomic scale limits fundamental insights needed to improve their performance. Here, we use grazing-incidence x-ray total scattering measurements to examine the atomic structure of the top 50–100 nm of Ta₂O₅ films; mirror coatings that show high promise to significantly improve the sensitivity of the next generation of gravitational-wave detectors. Our measurements show noticeable changes well into medium range, not only between crystalline and amorphous, but also between as-deposited, annealed and doped amorphous films. It is a further challenge to quickly translate the structural information into insights into mechanisms of packing and disorder. Here, we illustrate a modeling approach that allows translation of observed structural features to a physically intuitive packing of a primary structural unit based on a kinked Ta-O-Ta backbone. Our modeling illustrates how Ta-O-Ta units link to form longer 1D chains and even 2D ribbons, and how doping and annealing influences formation of 2D order. We also find that all the amorphousTa₂O₅ films studied in here are not just poorly crystalline but appear to lack true 3D order.

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Research Organization:: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-76SF00515

OSTI ID:: 1326209

Journal Information:: Scientific Reports, Vol. 6; ISSN 2045-2322

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 27 works

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Title: Measurement and modeling of short and medium range order in amorphous Ta2O5 thin films

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Title: Measurement and modeling of short and medium range order in amorphous Ta₂O₅ thin films