Influence of dopant content on morphology and optical constants of ZnO:Na films by sol-gel method

Undoped and Na-doped ZnO films were deposited by sol-gel method.The effects of sodium incorporation on structure,surface morphology and optical constants of the films were investigated.X-ray diffraction patterns show the hexagonal wurtzite polycrystalline structure and that the sodium incorporation leads to the change in the structural characteristics of ZnO films.The SEM observations show that the surface morphology of the films is affected by the sodium incorporation.The transmission spectra show that the average transmittance of the films is above 85% in the visible range.The absorption edge initially blue-shifts and then red-shifts with the increase of Na doping content.The optical constants of these films were calculated using transmission spectra.Refractive indices of the films in the visible range decrease at first and then increase with increasing Na doping content.

Simultaneous estimation of aerosol optical constants and size distribution from angular light-scattering measurement signals

The angular light-scattering measurement（ALSM） method combined with an improved artificial bee colony algorithm is introduced to determine aerosol optical constants and aerosol size distribution（ASD） simultaneously. Meanwhile, an optimized selection principle of the ALSM signals based on the sensitivity analysis and principle component analysis（PCA）is proposed to improve the accuracy of the retrieval results. The sensitivity analysis of the ALSM signals to the optical constants or characteristic parameters in the ASD is studied first to find the optimized selection region of measurement angles. Then, the PCA is adopted to select the optimized measurement angles within the optimized selection region obtained by sensitivity analysis. The investigation reveals that, compared with random selection measurement angles, the optimized selection measurement angles can provide more useful measurement information to ensure the retrieval accuracy. Finally,the aerosol optical constants and the ASDs are reconstructed simultaneously. The results show that the retrieval accuracy of refractive indices is better than that of absorption indices, while the characteristic parameters in ASDs have similar retrieval accuracy. Moreover, the retrieval accuracy in studying L-N distribution is a little better than that in studying Gamma distribution for the difference of corresponding correlation coefficient matrixes of the ALSM signals. All the results confirm that the proposed technique is an effective and reliable technique in estimating the aerosol optical constants and ASD simultaneously.

Thickness dependence of the optical constants of oxidized copper thin films based on ellipsometry and transmittance

Thin oxidized copper films in various thickness values are deposited onto quartz glass substrates by electron beam evaporation. The ellipsometry parameters and transmittance in a wavelength range of 300 nm-1000 nm are collected by a spectroscopic ellipsometer and a spectrophotometer respectively. The effective thickness and optical constants, i.e., refractive index n and extinction coefficient k, are accurately determined by using newly developed ellipsometry combined with transmittance iteration method. It is found that the effective thickness determined by this method is close to the physical thickness and has obvious difference from the mass thickness for very thin film due to variable density of film. Furthermore, the thickness dependence of optical constants of thin oxidized Cu films is analyzed.

Study on optical constants inversion and infrared transmission characteristics of aerosol particles

Based on the experimental infrared spectral transmittances,an inverse model has been developed to determine the optical constants of the aerosol particles (SiO2 and Al2O3).Combined with the Mie theory and Kramers-Kronig (K-K) relations,the complex refractive indices of the SiO2 and Al2O3 particles are retrieved.The effects of the measurement errors on the inverse results are also investigated.With the optical constants inversed from the experiment,the discrete ordinate method (DOM) is used to calculate the infrared transmission characteristics of the aerosol particle cloud.Considering the multi-scattering and self-emission of the particles,the equivalent transmittance ratio (ETR) is suggested to evaluate the infrared transmission characteristics of the aerosol particles.Particular attention is given to analyze the effects of the volume fraction and diameters on infrared transmission characteristics.When the volume fraction is larger than 0.001,the particle diameter has little effect on the infrared transmission characteristics.For the uniform monodisperse particles in the detection waveband range of 3-5 μm and 8-12 μm,there exists a critical diameter where the ETR reaches the minimum value.In addition,the ETR of 3-5 μm is smaller than that of 8-12 μm with the same volume fraction and particle diameter.

Extraction of optical constants and thickness of nanometre scale TiO2 film

TiO2 thin films were deposited on glass substrates by sputtering in a conventional rf magnetron sputtering system. X-ray diffraction pattern and transmission spectrum were measured. The curves of refraction index and extinction coefficient distributions as well as the thickness of films calculated from transmission spectrum were obtained. The optimization problem was also solved using a method based on a constrained nonlinear programming algorithm.

Variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry and its applications in determining optical constants of chalcogenide glasses in infrared

The principle of variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry（VASE） and the data analysis models, as well as the applications of VASE in the characterization of chalcogenide bulk glasses and thin films are reviewed. By going through the literature and summarizing the application scopes of various analysis models, it is found that a combination of various models, rather than any single data analysis model, is ideal to characterize the optical constants of the chalcogenide bulk glasses and thin films over a wider wavelength range. While the reliable optical data in the mid-and far-infrared region are limited, the VASE is flexible and reliable to solve the issues, making it promising to characterize the optical properties of chalcogenide glasses.

Inversion Methods of Optical Constants of Semitransparent Solid Materials from Transmittance Spectrograms

The direct calculation models of spectral transmittance of single and double slabs consisted of semitransparent solid materials were developed based on ray trace method, and a new inversion method of optical constants （k is extinction coefficient and n is refractive index ） of materials was proposed based on transmittance spectrograms of double slabs. Differences between the new method and two others currently used methods were studied, and application range of methods was also investigated. Optical constants of selenide glass attained in references were selected as true values, and spectral transmittances of glass simulated based on direct calculation model were regarded as experimental values. Optical constants of selenide glass were achieved by inverse models. Influences of measurement error on inverse results were also determined. The results showed that ： （ 1 ） based on transmittance spectrograms of double slabs in which thickness of single slab is the same, the new proposed method can attain optical constants of materials; （2） the effect of optical constants n and k on three inversion methods are urgent larger, but inversed calculation precision of optical constants are higher in most application ranges ; （ 3 ） the influence of measurement errors existed in experimental datum on the inverse precision of three methods are urgent distinctness.

CALCULATION OF INFRARED OPTICAL CONSTANTS FOR CO_2 LASER HOLLOW WAVEGUIDE MATERIALS

A simple method was deduced for calculat-ing optical constant, optical loss and transmittance per meter of hollow-core optical fiber using data analysis method, ge-ometerical optical and electromagnetic theory. The method was used to study the Na2O-ZnO-GeO2-SiO2-PbO and Sb2O3 sysem. The glasses have nr<1 region. When the core diameter ao is 0. 5mm, the hollow waveguides of the Sb2O3-containing . glass is predicted with minimum loss of 0. 8 dB/m at 940cm-1

Nickel Antimony Sulphide Thin Films for Solar Cell Application: Study of Optical Constants

Chemical bath deposition technique has been used to deposit Ni-doped Sb2S3 thin films onto glass substrate. Doping was carried out by adding 1, 3 and 5 wt% of Ni. Bath temperature was kept as 10℃ and films were annealed at 250℃ under vacuum. Polycrystalline nature of films with an orthorhombic phase was analyzed by X-ray diffraction technique. Scanning electron microscopy was used for morphological study which shows that grains are spherical. Optical measurements using transmittance data indicated that films have a direct band gap of 1.00 - 2.60 eV with an absorption coefficient of ~104 cm-1 in visible range. The average value of electrical conductivity was calculated as 1.66, 1.11 and 1.06 (Ω·cm)-1 for as-deposited films and 1.90, 2.08 and 1.15 (Ω·cm)-1 for annealed films while refractive indices were found as 2.18 - 3.38 and 1.91 - 3.74 respectively. The obtained films can be used for solar cell applications due to their good absorbing properties like higher absorption coefficient and refractive index values.

Proton radiation effects on optical constants of Al film reflector

The Al film reflectors can yield a high-reflectance over a broad wavelength region, and have been widely used in the spacecraft optical instruments for high quality optical applications. Under the irradiation of charged particles in the Earth radiation belt, the reflectors could be deteriorated. In order to reveal the deterioration mechanism, the change in optical constants of Al film reflector induced by proton radiation with 60 keV was studied in an environment of vacuum with heat sink. Experimental results showed that when the radiation damage primarily occurs in the Al reflecting film, the extinction coefficient k will gradually decrease with increasing radiation fluence, which results in the decrease of the energies of reflective light. Therefore, the proton radiation induced an obvious degradation of spectral reflectance in the wavelength region from 200 to 800nm on the Al film reflector.

Optical constants and their dispersion of Ag-MgF_2 nanoparticle composite films

Ag-MgF_2 composite films with different Ag fractions were prepared through a co-evaporation method. Microstructure analysis shows that the films are composed of amorphous MgF_2 matrix and embedded fcc-Ag nanoparticles. The optical constants and their dispersion of the films, within the wavelength range of 250 - 650 nm, were measured by reflecting spectroscopic ellipsometry. The maximum of the imaginary part ε~″ of the complex dielectric permittivity attributing to the surface plasmon resonance polarization of the Ag nanoparticles in an Ag-MgF_2 film, and the tangent of the phase-shift angle δ resulting from the dielectric loss of the film, occur at λ= 435 nm and λ= 420 nm, respectively. Based on Maxwell-Garnett effective medium theory, the experimentally observed dispersion spectra were reasonably described.

DDI METHOD FOR MEASURING OPTICAL CONSTANTS OF THIN FILMS

By double beam and double wave interferomatric (DDI) method, the optical constants of thin films, i.e. refractive index, extinction coefficient and thickness may be determined in infrared (3.39 μm) and in visible (0.633 μm) wavelengths in the same optical path with a tunable double wave He Ne laser designed by ourselves. The measuring principle and the device are describod.

Optical constants of DUV/UV fluoride thin films

High-refractive-index materials LaF3, NdF3, and GdF3 and low-refractive-index materials MgF2, A1F3, and Na3A1F6 single thin films are deposited by a resistive-heating boat at different depositing rates and specific substrate temperatures on single crystal MgF2 substrates. Transmittances of all fluoride thin films are measured using commercial spectrometer in the ambient atmosphere and under vacuum using synchrotron radiation instrument in the wavelength region from 190 to 500 am. The optical constants of these materials are determined by envelope method and iterative algorithm on the basis of transmittance measurements.

Influence of sputtering pressure on optical constants of a-GaAs_(1-x)N_x thin films

Amorphous GaAsl-xNx （a-GaAsl-xNx） thin films have been deposited at room temperature by a reactive magnetron sputtering technique on glass substrates with different sputtering pressures. The thickness, nitrogen content, carrier concentration and transmittance of the aseposited films were determined experimentally. The influence of sputtering pressure on the optical band gap, refractive index and dispersion parameters （Eo, Ed） has been investigated. An analysis of the absorption coefficient revealed a direct optical transition characterizing the asdeposited films. The refractive index dispersions of the as-deposited a-GaAsl-xNx films fitted well to the Cauchy dispersion relation and the Wemple model.

Extraction of optical constants in the terahertz band using material dispersion models

This study proposes a method based on material dispersion models to computationally simulate terahertz(THz)time-domain spectroscopy signals.The proposed method can accurately extract the refractive indices and extinction coefficients of optically thin samples and high-absorption materials in the THz band.This method was successfully used to extract the optical constants of a 470-μm-thick monocrystalline silicon sample and eliminate all errors associated with the Fabry-Perot oscillation.When used to extract the optical constants of a 16.29-mm-thick polycarbonate sample,our method succeeded in minimizing errors caused by the low signal-to-noise ratio in the extracted optical constants.

Convenient and inexpensive determination of optical constants and film thickness of blended organic thin film

This work presents the study of optical constants and film thickness of blended organic thin films, emphasizing on the modeling procedure with modified genetic algorithm aided by absorption or transmittance spectra of both pure materials and the blends. Taking the blending of copper phthalocyanine(Cu Pc) and fullerene(C60) as an example, a simple, convenient and low-cost method for the determination of the optical constants and film thickness of blended organic thin films was demonstrated. New scheme for optical modeling of blended organic thin film was proposed by introducing peak energies of Cody-Lorentz oscillators of the pure materials, which were determined by fitting the film absorption of pure materials. These oscillators of pure materials could be recognized in the transmittance spectrum of their blends, and were further used as the initial searching ranges in the simulation of blended films. As a result, the constraint bounds of the unknown parameters were significantly reduced and modeling efficiency as well as fitting accuracy was improved. For instance, the fitting of the transmittance curves of blended films with different blending ratios reached reliable results in comparison with extinction coefficients obtained from experiment.

Optical constants study of YAG：Ce phosphor layer blended with SiO2 particles by Mie theory for white light-emitting diode package

Optical constants, including scattering coefficient, absorption coefficient, asymmetry parameter and reduced scattering coefficient, of cerium-doped yttrium aluminium garnets （YAG：Ce） phosphor blended with SiO2 particle for white light-emitting diode （LED） packages were calculated based on Mie theory in this study. Calculation processes were presented in detail. Variations of the optical constants with the changes of phosphor weight fraction, dopant weight fraction, phosphor particle radius and SiO2 particle radius, were shown and analyzed separately. It was found that the asymmetry parameter is the intrinsic characteristic of the particles, and the increase of the phosphor weight fraction （or concentration） will lead to the increase of the optical constants. It was also discovered that the increase of the dopant weight fraction will enhance the scattering coefficient, but result in the decreases of the reduced scattering coefficient and the absorption coefficient.

The effects of post-thermal annealing on the optical parameters of indium-doped ZnO thin films

Indium-doped ZnO thin films are deposited on quartz glass slides by RF magnetron sputtering at ambient temperature. The as-deposited films are annealed at different temperatures from 400℃ to 800 ℃ in air for 1 h. Transmittance spectra are used to determine the optical parameters and the thicknesses of the films before and after annealing using a nonlinear programming method, and the effects of the annealing temperatures on the optical parameters and the thickness are investigated. The optical band gap is determined from the absorption coefficient. The calculated results show that the film thickness and optical parameters both increase first and then decrease with increasing annealing temperature from 400℃ to 800℃. The band gap of the as-deposited ZnO：In thin film is 3.28 eV, and it decreases to 3.17 eV after annealing at 400℃. Then the band gap increases from 3.17 eV to 3.23 eV with increasing annealing temperature from 400℃ to 800℃.

Effect of optical pump on the dielectric properties of SrTiO_3 in terahertz range

Tuning the dielectric permittivity spectra of strontium titanate （SrTiO3） single crystals in an extemal optical field is investigated at room temperature by means of terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. The application of the optical field leads to an appreciable tuning of the permittivity, reaching up to 2.8%, with the dielectric loss changing about 3%. The observed behavior is interpreted in terms of soft-mode hardening due to the anharmonic character of its potential. We also find that the change of the refractive index responds linearly to the applied light power. These findings are attributed to a linear electro-optical effect of the internal space charge field of the crystal.

Common electronic band gaps and similar optical properties of ZnO nanotubes

Electronic and optical properties of single-walled zinc oxide （ZnO） nanotubes are investigated from the firstprinciples calculations. Electronic structure calculations show that ZnO nanotubes are all direct band gap semiconducting nanotubes and the band gaps are relatively insensitive to the diameter and chirality of tubes. The origin of the common electronic band gaps of ZnO nanotubes is explained in terms of band-folding from the two-dimensional band structure of graphite-like sheet. Moreover, the optical properties such as dielectric function and energy loss function spectra of different ZnO nanotubes are very similar, relatively independent of diameter and chirality of tubes. The calculated dielectric function and loss function spectra show a moderate optical anisotropy with respect to light polarization.