Structural and optical properties of YVO4 thin films

Abstract In this work, thin YVO 4 films were deposited on amorphous SiO 2 substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). Ceramic targets of pure and doped (Er and Er, Yb) YVO 4 were prepared and used for ablation. The influence of the substrate temperature and oxygen pressure applied during the depositions was investigated. Crystalline films were obtained at temperatures higher than 500 °C. The films with the best crystallinity were obtained at 5 Pa oxygen pressure and 700 °C substrate temperature. All the films are transparent in the visible and near infrared region of spectra. The crystalline samples show difference in the refractive indexes Δ n (Δ n = n TE − n TM ) for the TE and TM polarizations. It was evaluated to be about 0.08.