Characterization of Thermally Evaporated Ag-Ge-S Thin Films

Fei Wang, California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo
William Porter Dunn, California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo
Mukul Jain, California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo
Carter De Leo, California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo
Nicholas Vicker, California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo
Richard Savage, California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo
Xiaomin Jin, California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo
Sergey Mamedov, Horiba Jobin Yvon Inc.
Punit Boolchand, University of Cincinnati - Main Campus

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Abstract

Thin films of ternary (GeS₃)_1-xAg_x glasses (x=0.1 and 0.2) are studied in this work. Thin films are fabricated in a vacuum thermal evaporator at 3 different evaporation angles (0^o, 30^o and 45^o). All thin film samples are examined in Raman spectroscopy. Raman results of both normally and obliquely deposited thin film samples reveal Ge-S CS modes (~340cm^-1) , Ge-S ES (~360cm^-1) modes, and thiogermanate modes Q₁~Q₃ (390cm^-1~437cm^-1). In addition, sharp peaks due to sulfur rings (S₈) are observed at 218cm^-1 and 470cm^-1. Raman line-shapes of thin films are qualitatively consistent with their corresponding bulk glasses?. However, the sharp peaks due to sulfur rings were not observed in bulk glasses. By comparing CS modes of thin films of three angles, we observe that normally deposited (0 degree) thin film shows a red-shift in center and a broadening in width. The film thickness of normally deposited films are significantly smaller comparing with that of corresponding obliquely deposited films.