Structural and optical characterization of ZrO2 thin films grown on silicon and quartz substrates

Zirconium oxide thin films were grown successfullyby thermal annealing of zirconium thin filmsdeposited on quartz and silicon substrates by direct currentmagnetron sputtering technique. The structural and opticalproperties in relation to thermal annealing times wereinvestigated. The X-ray diffraction patterns revealed thatstructure of films changes from amorphous to crystalline byincrease of annealing times in range 60–240 min. Thecomposition of films was determined by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy. Atomic force microscopy resultsexhibited that surface morphology and roughness of filmsdepend on the annealing time. The refractive index of thefilms was calculated using Swanepoel’s method. Theoptical band gap energy of annealed films decreased from5.50 to 5.34 eV with increasing thermal annealing time.