CALCINATION TEMPERATURE EFFECTS ON OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF NANO-POROUS SILICA THIN FILMS

Silica nano-porous thin films at various calcination temperatures were deposited on glass substrates with a layer by layer method. The structure, morphology, surface composition, transmittance and reflectance of the films were investigated by X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, attenuated total reflectance fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and UV-VIS-NIR spectrophotometer, respectively. The results indicated that the transmittance of the films is increased by increasing the calcinations temperatures to 300oC and at higher temperature, it is decreased. The deposition of silica nano-porous film on the glass at the optimum calcination temperature (300oC) decreased refractive index of the glass at a wavelength of 550 nm from 1.5 to 1.37.