Tantalum oxide thin films were prepared by reactive sputtering in the mixture of argon and oxygen. Total sputtering pressure was kept at constant of 1.5×10
-3 Torr and oxygen pressure was varied from zero to 1.0×10
-4 Torr. The metallic film of β-Ta structure was predominantly formed in lower pressure region. When oxygen pressure was increased up to the specific value, the film suddenly became transparent and its crystalline structure was amorphous.
Optical energy gap of the transparent films increased with increasing oxygen pressure, while their refractive index remained almost constant. From AES measurement, the ratio of tantalum to oxygen was about 2 : 4.6 and this ratio was independent of oxygen pressure.
Experimental results on dielectric properties of the film sputtered in Ar and O
2 mixture were scattered. By adding a suitable amount of nitrogen to the Ar and O
2 mixture, dielectric properties of the film was improved.
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