Influence of thickness and deposition angle on structural and optical properties of manganese oxide thin films

Manganese oxide thin films were produced on glass substrates by resistive evaporation at room temperature. The layers with different thickness (30 and 90 nm) at different deposition angles (0 and 40°) were prepared by electron gun evaporation method under ultra-high vacuum condition. After deposition of pure manganese oxide thin films a post-annealing process was used in a uniform oxygen flow of 300 (sccm) and at 500 K annealing temperature. Optical transmittance and reflectance of the layers were measured in the wavelength of 350–850 nm by a spectrophotometer. Kramers–Kronig relations were used to calculate the optical constants. The influence of oxygen flow and annealing temperature on optical properties is investigated. It was found that film thickness and deposition angle plays a significant role on the nanostructures as well as optical properties of layers and cause major variations in behavior of thin manganese oxide films. The physical properties of materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), FE-SEM, AFM, EDAX, and UV-VIS techniques.