Optical Properties of Ag-TiO(2) Nanocermet Films Prepared by Cosputtering and Multilayer Deposition Techniques

Ag-TiO(2) nanocermet thin films, deposited for optical filtering applications by two sputtering techniques, codeposition and multilayer deposition, exhibit surface plasmon absorption in the spectral range 450-500 nm. The cosputtering technique induces a columnar growth, whereas multilayer deposition produces a more-random distribution of silver inclusions. Both films have large, flat silver grains at the air-cermet interface. An optical double-heterogeneous layer model based on the experimental morphological parameters of the films accounts well for their experimental transmittance, notably for extra absorption near 700 nm, which is attributed to a surface plasmon in the flat silver grains of the surface.