Optical properties and microstructure of ZrO2 thin films deposited by RF magnetron sputtering: case study on effects of different working temperatures

Today, there is a great interest and desire to design and build thin films with morphologies that meet different applications and needs, especially in the field of optics, surface science and surface engineering. Therefore, in this study, the effect of deposition temperature has been investigated using surface parameters obtained from atomic force microscopy analysis (AFM) to describe surface morphology in zirconium dioxide layers (ZrO 2 ) by RF magnetron sputtering method on substrate made of glass, which are prepared in argon and oxygen gas media. These surface morphology parameters are defined in the special ISO 25178-2 standard. Besides, the transmission of optical spectra and transparency of the samples are obtained by using the optical spectrometer.