Silver Film Surface Modification by Ion Bombardment Decreases Surface Plasmon Resonance Absorption

Silver thin films covered with dielectric films serving as protective coatings are desired for telescope mirrors, but durable coatings have proved elusive. As part of an effort to develop long-lived protected-silver mirrors, silver thin films were deposited by electron beam evaporation using a physical vapor deposition system at the University of California Observatories Astronomical Coatings Lab. The silver films were later covered with a stack of dielectric films utilizing silicon nitride and titanium dioxide deposited by ion-assisted electron beam evaporation to fabricate protected mirrors. In-situ argon ion bombardment was introduced after silver deposition and prior to the deposition of dielectric films to assess its effects on the performance of the mirrors. We found that ion bombardment of the silver influenced surface morphology and reflectivity, and these effects correlated with time between silver deposition and ion bombardment. The overall reflectivity at wavelengths in the range of 350–800 nm was found to improve due to ion bombardment, which was qualitatively interpreted as a result of decreased surface plasmon resonance coupling. We suggest that the observed decrease in coupling is caused by silver grain boundary pinning due to ion bombardment suppressing silver surface diffusion, forming smoother silver–dielectric interfaces.