Temperature dependent dielectric function in the near-infrared to vacuum-ultraviolet ultraviolet spectral range of alumina and yttria stabilized zirconia thin films

摘要

The dielectric function of nano-/polycrystalline alumina and yttria stabilised zirconia thin films has been investigated in a wide spectral range from 1.0 eV to 7.5 eV and temperatures between 10 K and room temperature. In the near band-edge spectral range, we found a broad distribution of optical transitions within the band gap, the so-called Urbach absorption tail which is typical for'amorphous or polycrystalline materials due to the lack of long range order in the crystal structure. The coupling properties of the electronic system to the optical phonon bath and thermal lattice vibrations strongly depend on the ratio of the spectral extent of these disorder states to the main phonon energy, which we correlate with the different crystalline structure of our samples. The films have been grown at room temperature and 650 ℃ by pulsed laser deposition.