Measurement and Modeling of Short and Medium Range Order in Amorphous Ta2O5 Thin Films.

ABSTRACT: Amorphous films and coatings are rapidly growing in importance. Yet, there is a dearth of high-quality structural data on sub-micron films. Not understanding how these materials assemble at atomic scale limits fundamental insights needed to improve their performance. Here, we use grazing-incidence x-ray total scattering measurements to examine the atomic structure of the top 50-100 nm of Ta2O5 films; mirror coatings that show high promise to significantly improve the sensitivity of the next generation of gravitational-wave detectors. Our measurements show noticeable changes well into medium range, not only between crystalline and amorphous, but also between as-deposited, annealed and doped amorphous films. It is a further challenge to quickly translate the structural information into insig

SUBMITTER: Shyam B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4999889 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature