Germanium sulphide and antimony germanium sulphide glass thin films fabricated by chemical vapour deposition

Germanium sulphide glass thin films have been successfully fabricated directly by the chemical vapour deposition (CVD) process. The precursor, germanium tetrachloride, was used to react with hydrogen sulphide to form germanium sulphide glass thin films on some selected substrates at the temperatures ranging from 450°C to 600°C. By introducing another antimony pentachloride precursor to the above CVD system, a ternary antimony germanium sulphide (Sb-Ge-S) glass thin films can be deposited on some selected substrates at temperatures in the range of 1200°C-400°C and the composition of these Sb-Ge-S glass thin films can be tuned by the selection of different deposition temperatures. These germanium sulphide and antimony germanium sulphide glass thin films have been characterized by micro-Raman, scanning electron microscopy, e-tlergy dispersive X-ray analysis and X-ray diffraction techniques. The CVD technique has been shown a very promising process to fabricate high quality chalcogenide thin films for optical waveguide and device applications.