Substrate Temperature Effect on Optical Constants of Gd₂O₃ Thin Films

Effect of substrate temperature on lanthanide oxide material Gd2O3 thin films deposited by e-beam evaporation has been reported in the present work. Optical properties and surface morphology of as deposited films have been measured using spectrophotometry and atomic force microscopy respectively. Optical constants such as refractive index, extinction coefficient, band gap and Urbach energy have been determined by analysis of experimentally recorded absorption, transmittance and reflection data in wavelength range 200-800nm. Optical band gap energy shows decreasing while Urbach energy shows increasing behavior with increasing temperature. Extinction coefficient and refractive index with varying wavelengths are also calculated. Surface topographies of all samples are studied by atomic force microscope (AFM) and root mean square (RMS) value of roughness is observed increasing with increasing substrate temperature.