The nitrogen addition to argon gas during the Ag deposition was investigated to lower the deposition rate. As a result, it was found that the deposition rate systematically decreased with the increase of nitrogen gas concentration; furthermore, the Ag thin films deposited with nitrogen gas exhibited sufficient optical reflectance. It can be considered that the nitrogen gas addition leads to the decrease of sputtering yield and positive ions accelerated to the target, hence, the deposition rate of the Ag thin films decreases.
