Chemical bonding and optoelectrical properties of ruthenium doped yttrium oxide thin films

Highly infrared transparent conductive ruthenium doped yttrium oxide (RYO) films were deposited on zinc sulfide and glass substrates by reactive magnetron sputtering. The structural, optical, and electrical properties of the films as a function of growth temperature were studied. It is shown that the sputtered RYO thin films are amorphous and smooth surface is obtained. The infrared transmittance of the films increases with increasing the growth temperature. RYO films maintain greater than ∼65% transmittance over a wide wavelength range from 2.5 μm to 12 μm and the highest transmittance value reaches 73.3% at ∼10 μm. With increasing growth temperature, the resistivity changed in a wide range and lowest resistivity of about 3.36 × 10−3 Ω cm is obtained at room temperature. The RYO thin films with high conductivity and transparency in IR spectral range would be suitable for infrared optical and electromagnetic shielding devices.