Optical band engineering of metal-oxynitride based on tantalum oxide thin film fabricated via reactive gas-timing RF magnetron sputtering

Abstract In this paper, we demonstrate a novel technique, as called reactive gas-timing (RGT) RF magnetron sputtering, to control and design an optical band engineering of TaON thin films without an external heating substrate temperature and post annealing treatment process. The influence of the oxygen intervals ranged from 5 to 60 s on deposition rate, chemical composition and optical properties of TaON thin films were investigated. The chemical composition was characterized by auger electron spectroscopy (AES). The optical properties were determined by UV–Vis spectrophotometer and spectroscopic ellipsometry. The nitrogen atomic concentration of the TaON thin films deposited by RGT decreased when the oxygen gas-timing intervals increased. In addition, the RGT sputtered TaON films could be demonstrated band gaps engineering from 1.90 to 2.15 eV.