Optimization of Ta₂O₅ optical thin film deposited by radio frequency magnetron sputtering

Radio frequency magnetron sputtering has been used here to find the parameters at which to deposit Ta₂O₅ optical thin films with negligible absorption in the visible spectrum. The design of experiment methodology was employed to minimize the number of experiments needed to find the optimal results. Two independent approaches were used to determine the index of refraction n and k values.